Black Narcissus

“Black Narcissus and this, to me, are the pinnacles of color narrative. Black Narcissus is maybe one of the five most beautiful movies ever made. Easily. And the fact this is all done artificially, meaning matte paintings, set extensions. Black Narcissus is a parable of desire. Well, Black Narcissus. You can not own it too many times. Never.”

“Let’s go for Black Narcissus. This movie is, I think, one of the greatest color movies of all time. There’s one particular shot towards the end of the film with Kathleen Byron, which, in my head, that is probably minutes of film, when in reality the shot is only on screen for less than two Seconds. And it’s a shot of Kathleen Byron coming through a doorway, and it’s part of an incredible climax, which I won’t spoil if you’ve never seen the film.”

“Black Narcissus, my favorite Technicolor film. Sexually repressed nuns in a convent in India. Bad vibes, great visuals. I feel like Deborah Kerr never really got her due. She had kind of a more subdued, straightforward approach in an era where kind of the more theatrical performances of someone like Bette Davis or Joan Crawford were kind of like more Oscar bait. Deborah was just kind of holding it down.”

“I'm getting a Blu-ray of Black Narcissus. We discussed this on one of our quarantine film club meetings. When lockdown started, I started a film club with a few of my friends and this was one of the movies that we talked about. Although some of us did not like it, I loved it though.”

“Black Narcissus. Definitely one of my all-time favorites. Have you seen Black Narcissus? Yes, I have. Incredible. They did it so well, didn't they? Just incredible. Yeah, so much like repression bursting from every frame.”