Today's release of Criterion's gorgeous new Blu-rays of Powell & Pressburger's Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes is truly an occasion for celebration. None of the previous forms or formats in which I've seen either movie come anywhere near the presentation found on these discs. A couple of months ago, I decided that the best way to celebrate would be the limited run of articles you're reading right now. The burden of proof when recommending a vintage or catalog film to a friend is "why should I care and how will this change my life?"
I'm not pairing these because they're the new release titles that inspired the series. In fact, they were going to be paired off differently at one point. Re-watching Black Narcissus the other day resulted in settling firmly on its inextricable tie to Red Shoes: they're both drenched in unfulfilled longing. They are, above all, films of raging sexual tension that just drip palpable desire until they climax.
That heavily-breathing, not-so-subtle imagery in that last sentence, for me, properly conveys the pulse of these movies while watching them. The repressed nuns up on a cliff in Narcissus and the three leads in Shoes are all caged animals ready to run free. This sexually volatile undercurrent is the primary reason to watch them together, but the resplendent Technicolor photography by DP Jack Cardiff makes for an aesthetic treat of different styles and canvasses with the same paints.
I should mention here that these are best viewed with a romantic acquaintance present. Look, I'll be blunt: these movies have been getting people laid for decades.
Feature #1: Black Narcissus
100 minutes
available on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion in a new 2010 remastering
recommended food & drink: dried fruit and a good Pinot Noir (not to be finished before Feature #2), chill a good bottle of Sangria (but don't drink yet)
Black Narcissus finds a small group of nuns (led by Deborah Kerr) opening a convent in a remote mountain town in India (played here astonishingly well by Shepperton Studios). One of the nuns is sent along even though she's currently suffering from paranoid delusions that indicate something like schizophrenia. One is so innocent and sweet that she is ill-prepared for the harsh life ahead. Their Mother Superior (Kerr) can't help having flashbacks to her life before the habit. There's a brash, handsome devil of a man (David Farrar), an impressionable young Prince (Sabu), and an English starlet in a memorable and lusty brownface role (Jean Simmons). Things build steadily and peak suddenly and dramatically. It's a shame that many more people are familiar with or have seen Red Shoes, and not this, its direct predecessor.
Farrar started as a journalist and then theatre actor before jumping to film and retiring early, fearing the fading of his days as a leading man. Kerr and Simmons would both go on to long and rich careers. Less conventionally famous is Kathleen Byron, whose turn as Sister Ruth steals the show and is absolutely sensational. She would unfortunately be typecast for years and years, but it's difficult to imagine the unique spin she gave Ruth coming out of anyone else.
Feature #2: The Red Shoes (1948)
133 minutes
available on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion in a new 2010 remastering
recommended food & drink: remaining fruit and wine, add fresh fruit and the chilled Sangria
Red Shoes collides an aspiring composer/conductor, an equally passionate ballerina, and the man with all the power to make their dreams or nightmares real. The Hans Christian Anderson folktale of the title is the basis for a musical score and ballet at the film's heart. Like all the Anderson tales I'm familiar with, it ends darkly and tragically. It's not so much a fairy tale as they've often been transformed, but a folk horror story that eschews gore for psychological entrapment and oppression. Who will (or won't) give up their dream for the sake of whom? We somehow know the various answers all along, but the film is so rich that it rewards multiple viewings. It's one of my favorite films, and I don't want to hype it for anyone who has not seen it much more than I already have.
The new Blu-rays are the best I've ever seen these films, thanks to a painstaking digital restoration. They're $20 each at Barnes & Noble through the 1st of August, thanks to the recently-begun 50% off sale.
Next up: war!
The Archers is an ongoing series focusing on the work of Powell & Pressburger films, sometimes as double features. The beginning of this series is timed to celebrate the newly-released and remastered Criterion Blu-ray editions of Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes on 20 July 2010.