Black Narcissus
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Synopsis
Plagued by uncertainties and worldly desires, five Protestant missionary nuns, led by Deborah Kerr's Sister Clodagh, struggle to establish a school in the desolate Himalayas. All the elements of cinematic arts are perfectly fused in Powell and Pressburger's fascinating study of the age-old conflict between the spirit and the flesh, set against the grandeur of the snowcapped peaks of Kanchenjunga. Criterion is proud to present Black Narcissus in a new Special Edition.
Picture 5/10
The Criterion Collection’s original DVD edition for Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on a dual-layer disc.
Where revisiting Criterion’s original DVD of The Red Shoes recently proved shocking only because the transfer found on there wasn’t as bad as I remembered, revisiting Black Narcissus proved shocking as well, but this time because it was actually worse than I had remembered.
The source materials themselves are problematic, specifically with colour separation and pulsating. The colours are constantly fluctuating between hues of blue, red, and yellow, and you can almost always make out reddish or yellowish highlights around objects. The print has been restored but it still presents a number of flaws which are mostly limited to specs of debris. The Blu-ray edition still has some of these problems but it’s still nowhere near as bad.
This DVD is most harmed by its rather bizarre transfer, though. The most distracting element is that it appears to jump from progressive to interlaced throughout. Criterion has done things like this before on other early DVD releases (and I can’t say why) and when it happens it really hampers the image. Though the progressive parts aren’t that great, presenting a fairly fuzzy picture laced with some noticeable noise, the interlaced aspects present plenty of ghosting, trailing and jagged edges, especially distracting during moments with quick movements. The transfer also appears to have instances of edge-enhancement, though this could be remnants of the problems with colour separation.
In the end it’s a distracting, rather poor transfer from Criterion. Their new Blu-ray is the way to go in this regard.
Audio 6/10
The DVD presents a weak but acceptable Dolby Digital 1.0 mono track. Dialogue sounds good and is easy to hear, but the music can be quite harsh when it tries to reach for the highs. There is a little bit of noise in the background but it’s not distracting. Weak but average.
Extras 6/10
Starting out the decent set of supplements here is audio commentary featuring Martin Scorsese and Michael Powell, which was recorded in 1988 for the original Criterion laserdisc for the film. The two have unfortunately been recorded separately (common during Criterion’s laserdisc days and early DVD days) with Criterion editing it together. Powell, as expected, recalls the filming and the more technical aspects of the film, commenting on the actors and the crew, particularly actresses Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron, as well as director of photography Jack Cardiff. Scorsese on the other hand offers a more analytical element to the track. The films of Powell and Pressburger have been an enormous influence over his films, and he talks about all the things he finds wonderful and striking about this film and all of their films in general. Though dead spaces become more frequent during the last 30-minutes or so of the track, it’s fairly packed and quite illuminating, certainly worth listening to, or even worth revisiting if you’ve already heard it before.
Next is a great piece, Painting with Light, a 27-minute documentary on Jack Cardiff and his Academy Award winning photography for the film. Featuring interviews with Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Kathleen Byron, Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, Ian Christie, and others, the feature extensively covers Cardiff?s use of light and the Technicolor process, even giving us some great examples and demonstrations as to how Technicolor works, which includes breaking down how the camera works. Cardiff talks about some painters that have influenced his work (Rembrandt and Van Gogh just being a couple) and Byron attributes at least half of her performance to Cardiff’s use of lighting. It’s a great piece and a strong edition by Criterion.
Exclusive to this release (as it was omitted for some reason from the new Blu-ray edition) is a photo archive presenting a number of production and behind-the-scenes stills. There’s also a fair number of photos presenting deleted shots from the film. Text notes are also found throughout.
The edition then comes with an insert with a short essay on the film by Dave Kehr.
In all Criterion’s new Blu-ray edition tops this one (including more interviews and even a documentary on the making of the film) but this edition is still notable for the photo gallery that doesn’t appear on the new edition.
Closing
It should be no surprise I would steer everyone to the new DVD or Blu-ray editions from Criterion over this one. The photo gallery didn’t make it for whatever reason but it still contains the commentary and documentary from this one, along with some new material, and the new transfer tops this rather ghastly one. In all it’s always been a fairly bland and disappointing release.
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