Last night I watched Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 Oscar-winning Black Narcissus telling the story of a group of nuns who set out to establish a school in the desolate Himalayas. Of course, that short description does nothing to describe what actually happens in this film. There are hints along the way, and you realize the setup is perfect
once you go back and watch it again (which I did this morning), but the most striking character arc belongs to Sister Ruth played by Kathleen Byron.
We are first introduced to Sister Ruth as an empty chair and Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) saying, “But Sister Ruth is ill,” and asking, “Do you think our vocation is her vocation?” To which Mother Dorothea (Nancy Roberts), “Yes, she’s a problem. I’m afraid she’ll be a problem for you, too.”
With that said, here are ten screen captures of Sister Ruth’s progression throughout the film, all captures coming from Criterion’s 2001 DVD release. I won’t give you any additional details on the meaning of each capture so as not to spoil the film for those of you that haven’t seen it, and I didn’t include any images from the film’s finale so as to also keep that a surprise. Hopefully this will intrigue a few of you to add this one to your rental queue’s.
Of course, these images are just the start of a conversation when it comes to this film, especially when you look at the image at the lede of this piece and realize the film was shot 100% on the backlot at Pinewood studios in suburban London. Look at that image again with that in mind realizing there is no cliff.
Enjoy!
