BLACK NARCISSUS

This film is held by the BFI (ID: 23296).

Synopsis

Five Anglo-Catholic nuns open a school and a hospital in the Himalayas. It prospers until a series of mishaps turn the villagers against the nuns. Finally Sister Ruth becomes mad and attacks the mother superior only to bring about her own death.

Context

The subject matter of Black Narcissus is closely related to contemporary events relating to India’s independence from British rule in 1947. The film’s release in Britain in May 1947 coincided with increasing communal violence in India as protracted disputes continued over the form of government that should be established. The Indian Independence Act was hurried through in July 1947 in an attempt to quell the violence. It created two new dominions, a predominantly Hindu India and a predominantly Muslim Pakistan, a controversial solution that led to many subsequent conflicts. Both Rumer Godden’s novel and the film of Black Narcissus provide an interesting Western cultural reflection on the volatile political situation in India (Street, 2005). The story of the difficulties that faced the nuns and the abandonment of their mission can be read as a narrative about the decline of empire and the failure of imperialism.

The film was based on Rumer Godden’s popular novel published in 1939. Godden had lived in India as a child before returning to England in 1913. The novel draws on her personal connections with India and the film follows the plot closely with a few significant exceptions. Emeric Pressburger’s wife Wendy introduced him to the novel which he optioned in 1945 after meeting Godden. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger produced films as ‘The Archers’, an independent production company which released films through the Rank Organisation. Rather than film on location, Powell decided he could exercise a greater degree of control by shooting the film at Pinewood Studios, as well as in Ireland for the flashbacks and at Leonardslee in Horsham, Sussex, where there were verdant sub-tropical gardens. It was shot in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff who had previously worked in colour for The Archers on The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Matter of Life and Death. The studio environment, and sets designed by Alfred Junge, enhanced the stylised impression of the East as wild, disturbing and full of colour. Godden did not like the film primarily because The Archers chose this approach rather than a documentary one of filming in India. The Archers were known for their bold, experimental approach to filmmaking, and Black Narcissus encouraged experimentation with Technicolor, matte shots painted by special effects specialist Walter Percy (‘Poppa’) Day and his sons. The costumes were designed by Hein Heckroth who had emigrated from Germany in 1935 and designed costumes for A Matter of Life and Death. Another important contributor was Brian Easdale who was given the opportunity to experiment with the idea of the ‘composed film’ whereby a sequence was shot and cut taking its cue from the music.

While there is no evidence to suggest that the eve of Indian independence was a contributory factor in The Archers’ decision to film Black Narcissus, the coincidence is strikingly prescient. When asked about the colonial context Michael Powell replied that what they admired in the novel was its balanced presentation of both Indians and the British (Williams, 1981: 13).

Black Narcissus was distributed worldwide. Reviews in Britain were ambivalent, largely because it departed from the dominant critical trend of privileging realism above more melodramatic forms. Arthur Vesselo described it as ‘a disappointment, redeemed only in parts by its acting and photography’ (Sight and Sound, 16, 61, Spring 1947, p. 76). While the technical qualities were praised, particularly the Technicolor cinematography, exhibitors worried that the film would only appeal to ‘high-brow’ audiences (Kinematograph Weekly, 24 April, p. 27). The film however appears to have done reasonably well at the box-office. It has since become regarded a classic film representing the ‘lost continent’ of non-realist British cinema and was restored by the British Film Institute in the 1980s.

The contemporary reception of Black Narcissus in the USA was controversial because its release was postponed by the action of the Catholic Legion of Decency (LOD). Although the film was passed by the Production Code Administration (PCA), the body with the primary responsibility for censorship in the USA, the LOD, an organisation which also censored films and worked in close association with the PCA, objected to the film’s portrayal of nuns losing control and to the flashbacks of Clodagh’s former life in Ireland. Universal, the film’s US distributor, previewed the film but the LOD’s objections persisted, granting it a ‘C’ (‘Condemned’) rating. Protests and lobbying prevented its widespread release and by September 1947 Powell, Pressburger and Universal were forced to cut the film. There were ten cuts in all, including Sister Clodagh’s flashbacks in Ireland; dialogue considered to be salacious and Sister Ruth putting on red lipstick. For years this version was shown in the USA until the critical re-appraisal of Powell and Pressburger initiated by, among others, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. It was also released by Criterion as part of their specialist DVD collection, with commentary by Powell and Scorsese and with a special documentary on Jack Cardiff (Street, 2005: 62-74).

Analysis

After the initial opening sequence in Calcutta, when Clodagh is charged with establishing the convent in Mopu, Black Narcissus follows the experiences of the nuns as they grapple with the Eastern environment. Apart from Sister Clodagh’s four flashbacks in Ireland, the film follows a chronological structure, showing the nuns losing control and the impact of several catastrophic events – the death of the baby and Sister Ruth’s rebellion. Since the film is about the impact of the East on the nuns, the evocation of place is especially striking, communicated via a richly constructed mise-en-scène of sets designed by Junge, Heckroth’s costumes and Jack Cardiff’s colour cinematography. Several strategies are used to evoke the ‘Eastern Other’ of Orientalist imagination, such as constant verbal and aural reference to the high winds at Mopu; the nuns’ attempts to impose order on a volatile setting by showing them ringing the bell to keep time on several occasions; the contrast between the erotic wall paintings at the old palace and the nuns’ religious mission; the brightly-coloured costumes worn by Kanchi and the young General, characters who are both associated with a classic colonial stereotype of sexualised exoticism. The young General’s flamboyant attire, and his association with femininity via the perfume ‘Black Narcissus’, is contrasted with Mr Dean’s rugged, western masculinity. Kanchi’s sensuality is contrasted with the nuns’ sense of decorum. Both the young General and Joseph Anthony are depicted as child-like, as is the caretaker Ayah, depictions which constitute colonial stereotypes. Colour in particular is associated with the East and losing control, with vivid rhododendrons and azaleas being shown on many occasions, as well as Ruth’s red dress and lipstick which have obvious associations with sexuality. Jack Cardiff experimented with low-key lighting and coloured filters on the camera lens to create many effects, especially in the sequence, filmed to Easdale’s music, of Ruth stalking Clodagh before the climactic struggle at the bell tower towards the end of the film.

Sister Clodagh’s flashbacks are of particular interest, detailing her love affair in Ireland with Con, and showing her with freely flowing red hair, wearing brightly-coloured clothes and jewels in stark contrast to her appearance as a nun. The flashbacks in particular evoke an associative relationship between the past and present, especially when introduced by dissolves and overlapping sounds, between Clodagh’s memories of desire and her present exposure to such sensibilities: recognition induced by ‘the exotic’. Black Narcissus relates to the Empire genre of British cinema. The importance of place has been noted as being unusually prominent as a key aspect of its address (Jaikumar, 2001).

Particular shots and camera angles are distinctive in the film. The opening shot of two Tibetan ceremonial horns shows dominant circular shapes in the centre of the screen with vivid blue sky in the background; this shot is repeated fairly soon, before we see Ruth ringing the bell. Such juxtapositions establish opposition between Mopu and its rituals and the order represented by conventional time-keeping sought by the nuns in their new habitat. Clodagh and Ruth’s confrontation, when Clodagh discovers that Ruth has bought the red dress and plans to leave the Order, is characterised by an extreme close-up of Ruth putting on red lipstick, her eyes fixed on Clodagh in defiance. Close-ups also pick out key details such as the erotic wall paintings (designed by Junge) which suggest the lives of the palace’s former concubine occupants. .On one distinctive occasion the screen goes completely black when Sister Ruth faints when Mr Dean rejects her, an unusual effect which conveys ambiguous meaning.

The use of music and sound in the film is an important register of its themes. The incessant beating of drums, for example, can be heard as Sister Ruth struggles to find her way to Mr Dean’s house. These emphasise a sense of ‘eastern otherness’ which the nuns eventually find defeating. The sound of the wind is also used in this way, as a force they cannot control and which causes them distress. Brian Easdale’s music forms an integral element of particular scenes, such as the ‘stalking’ scene towards the end of the film when Clodagh makes her way to the bell tower, tracked by a malevolent Ruth. The scene has no dialogue and the music demonstrates an example of ‘the composed film’ which Powell and Pressburger went on to experiment with in other films.

Viewpoint is structured in a complex way in Black Narcissus. The film is primarily concerned with Clodagh’s task of making a success of St. Faith, dealing with her appointment as the Sister in charge of the mission and privileging her viewpoint by granting her four flashbacks. In many ways the film appears to be her view of events. Yet Mr Dean’s authority and insights are privileged on several occasions, this being suggested early on in the film as Mother Dorothea and Clodagh read his letter which becomes a voice-over narration giving his account of Mopu. Even though the majority of the literal point-of-view shots are of the nuns looking, observing one another and their environment, Mr Dean dominates the narrative. As he predicts, the nuns are forced to leave before the rains break, and his criticism of how they conduct their faith is accorded sense and insight. His assumed constant presence in Mopu is perhaps an indication that some aspects of British involvement in India were positive. The novel makes clear that the British do not rule Mopu directly: the land was leased to the General’s father for ‘experimental development’ by the British government. As the General’s agent, Mr Dean occupies an intermediary role in the colonialist context, but at the same time the local people are accorded a degree of autonomy and are to some extent respected by him (even though he is not free from colonial attitudes in his one-dimensional view of them). His rejection of the missionary work invited by the General therefore acts as a critique of this type of British presence in India.

Sarah Street