Black Narcissus

[David Johnson]

Watched a film called Black Narcissus made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Made in 1947 almost completely in Pinewood Studios, I would recommend it to anyone who is even vaguely interested in lighting.

The lighting is staggeringly good. Amazing. The cinematographer, Jack *Cardiff won an Oscar for his work, as did Alfred Junge won an Oscar for Best Art Direction.

[*Edited by moderator]

[Panties]

Probably the finest flowering of three strip technicolour. I have the bluray, it looks amazingly good, a painting come to life.

[David Johnson]

I got mine via a rental deal with Cinema Paradiso. The DVD also has a short film focused mainly on Jack Barclay called Painting with Light which talks about the three strip technicolour.

And for real students of film, a version of the film with audio analysis from Martin Scorsese.

Anyway, genius lighting.

[frankthring]

David, David, David, get thee to your local polytechnic and do an evening
course on film history and technique ! This is one of the most famous
British films of the 1940s. Director Michael Powell - he of such diverse works
as "The Red Shoes" (about ballet) and "Peeping Tom" (about a psycho
sadist, the movie that prematurely destroyed his career such was the
shock on its release, a film decades ahead of its time), has left two massive,
but very readable vols of autobiography - "A Life In Movies" and "Million
Dollar Movie". Besides the superb camerawork and visuals, "Black
Narcissus" has excellent performances from a ravishing Deborah Kerr - and
the much under-rated Kathleen Byron, who was destined to spend decades
playing neurotic types on TV (and never made it as a big star), but is
amazing as the nutty homicidal nun. P.S. - if you can`t get the books I`ll
lend you my copies !

[David Johnson]

Polytechnic, Frank? You have to attend a 3 year media studies course at a university in order to get a job in Costa Coffee now.

I have already seen Peeping Tom

The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death are next on the list.

[Phil Phee]

I can vouch for the fact A Matter of Life and Death is a film of profound beauty, but, speaking personally, I recall the female lead (whose name I can't recall) failed to evoke the warmth I desired in what is, after all, a love story (albeit epic in its scope, wit, originality and treatment).

Also recommended: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

[andy at handiwork]

Kim Hunter.

Lets not forget 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' which features the gorgeous Deborah Kerr in three roles. A hugely memorable and very poignant scene in the film is when Anton Walbrook, playing Wynn-Candy's (Roger Livesey) old friend Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, speaks of what it is to be a refugee fleeing to another country to escap evil. It brings me to tears every time I see it.

[David Johnson]

Thanks for the heads-up. I will add The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp to the list.

[andy at handiwork]

It was of course a film that enraged Churchill who may have regarded the titular hero to have been an unflattering caricature of himself. He also thought the film defeatist and too sympathetic to the 'good German' featured in the film. Walbrook was confronted by Winston at a play in the West End who told the actor, himself Austrian born, he thought the film was a disgrace, to which the actor replied that only the English ?would have had the courage, in the midst of the war, to tell the people such unvarnished truth?. Though unable to have the film banned in the UK where it did very good box-office, he did manage to delay its release abroad.

It is without doubt one of the finest British films.

[frankthring]

I agree Phil regarding the lead actress in a "A Matter....." This was Kim Hunter, a much better stage performer than she was a movie star, though her best performance - for which she won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress - came 5 years later as "Stella" in "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Brando. And
if you have not seen it that's another good one for you David !