Film Review: Black Narcissus (1947)

Fig 1: Poster for Black Narcissus displaying the cast and the mansion where the majority of the film takes place.

Black Narcissus is a 1947 film directed by Micheal Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It deals with female sexuality, and the struggle of censorship of sexual desire because of religious believes. A key factor of the film is the difference between Sister Clodagh and Sister Ruth as Clodagh keeps to her believes even tho the temptation of her past haunts her as she continues to live in the house, Ruth looks back on her pledge to God and becomes wrapped up in lust and sexual desire for the British Government Agent, Mr Dean."What better theatre in which to explore desire, hysteria, temptation and sexuality than a remote convent high up in the Indian Himalayas? And theatre this Michael Powell film most certainly is, as stressed by the gothic melodrama of the story and the acting, the studio setting with its beautiful backdrops and vivid colours and the most deliberate of characters and events."- (Dave Calhoun, Website,Timeout)
Depictions of Female sexuality is present through out the film, in the set design to the characters clothing and actions, men in the film are objectified or are used as a love device to spin of conflict between the more dominating presences of the female characters. The use of colour gives the viewer a visual cue of the distortion and corruption the Nuns, especially Sister Ruth, are experiencing as they continue their work in the used to be brothel they are working from. Colours slowly gain more hue and saturation as the film goes on, shadows get heavier and the cool tones of blue distort to a more vibrant reddish hue, as they abandon their Virgin Mary like status and fall deeper into a sexual lust. "Black Narcissus is a coldly intellectual morality drama tinged with a cynicism which has the effect of casting, as it were, a gratuitous reflection upon those who, regardless of sect, have forsaken worldly pleasures out of sheer religious devotion. This is so because the two dominant characters are basically frustrated women who seek solace in religion after unhappy romances." (Thomas M Pryer, Website, The New York Times)
Historically, 1947 was the year that India gained independence from Britain. The final scenes of the film could then be interpreted by British viewers, as the nuns leave the Himalayas as symbolism to the English leaving India and to their Empire. The film follows the book to a reasonable standard, though it does divulge at points, with a scene and a potential character cut out. Despite this, the english made film features only one Indian casted actor, as the Prince. The rest of the native characters are white actors and actresses in blackface.

Fig 2: Movie cap of the film displaying the use of matte painting to give a sense of how big the drop of the cliff is.

 The film centres around a group of nuns as they try to spread Christianity and the word of the Lord to a isolated civilisation in the Himalayas. They live in a what used to be brothel at the peak of the mountain over looking the people below, using a bell to signal the morning and the begins of lesson for the village girls and young children. The news of these lessons piqued the interest of the Prince of the village who asks Clodagh if he too could be taught due to his interest in education. Why there he meets a young girl who started to live with the nuns as a way to discipline her from her sexual ways, which ends up being ineffective as she falls for the prince's looks and starts to romance him.
As the film progresses, the influence the building's history has on the nuns starts to take it toll, not helped by Mr. Dean's flirtatious ways. Leading to the nuns questioning their faithfulness to the Lord, first through small things like growing flowers instead of vegetables to the deterioration of Sister Ruth who leaves the religious organisation, seductively puts on red lipstick and tight fitting clothes and goes off to find Mr Dean. She goes from the ex-brothel establishment down into the village and to the Dean's house, breaking in and attempting to force herself onto him before her vision goes a bright red and she collaspes. When she wakes up, she finds that she is back in the ex-Brothel. As Sister Clodagh rings the bells signalling the morning classes, Ruth pushes her of this cliff, but Clodagh is able to cling to the bell's rope. After a tousle Clodagh throws Ruth off of her, straight down the mountain leading to her untimely death. The Nuns decide to leave the manor, the tension they felt up there growing too strong with the death of Ruth being the final straw. The film ends with a panning out shot of the Sisters going back down the mountain, Sister Clodagh telling Mr. Dean to look after the gravesite for her.

Fig 3: Movie cap of Sister Ruth, the potential villain of the film as she snaps due to the sexual lust she has for Mr Dean.

While the film isn't that strong plot wise, it makes up for it in it's staging and set design. Made solely in the UK, through the use of miniatures and matte painting, Black Narcissus, is able to incapture the landscape of the Himalayas. The escalation of the colours used through out getting bolder and more noticeable as the Sisters continue their stay in the mansion. Starting with soft washed-out cold colours including a pastel blue room, the film progresses into a amber and red hue as the effect of the people and the surroundings start to take their hold on the Nuns. As the plot deepens so do the shadows, darkening the scenes and bringing out even more colour. This is especially present with Sister Ruth and the colour red. At the beginning of the film she stumbles into Sister Clodagh and Mr Dean, cover in bright blood and later on she puts on red lipstick as she drops her pledge to God and is absorbed by her lust for Mr Dean. "Without leaving England, Powell and Pressburger created a rapturous landscape whose colors seem to spill over onto the nuns’ off-white habits. This is a landmark of Hollywood-on-Thames trompe-l’oeil." (Michael Sragow, The New Yorker)

Bibliograph:

Fig 1: http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Narc11.jpg
Fig 2: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwO6VGMzvbot6DU4Ensjob73-NIijw51g4LhiW0aQcu-7pHEJoqavnjENux580HnRQS57UmyvW3APbwFPqmUmJtKWXyqrZDsU0pdjvBEmufH4W2DFQwzvGx-volZra3Le0P4qkcjfqidi/s1600/Black+Narcissus+the+abyss.jpg
Fig 3: http://theredlist.com/media/database/settings/cinema/1940-1950/the-black-narcissus/040-the-black-narcissus-theredlist.jpg
Dave Calhoun- http://www.timeout.com/london/film/black-narcissus
Thomas M Pryer- http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173CE261BC4C52DFBE66838C659EDE
Micheal Sragow- http://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/black-narcissus

Life Drawing 9

Fig 1: 20 Minute Study

Fig 2: 3 Minute Studies about Foreshortening

Fig 3: 30 Minute Study

This week we did a bit of foreshortening with a new male model, Alan. I'd like to do some more foreshortening exercises in the future as its a good way to get out of a comfort zone.

Life Drawing 7 and 8

Week 7:

Fig 1: 20 Minute Study

Fig 2: 2-5 Minute Posing Sketches

Fig 3: 3 Minute Sketches 

Week 8:

Fig 4: 20 Minute Study with Pencil and Ink

Fig 5: 3 Minute Sketches

Fig 6: 20 Minute Study

For these two weeks I tried to mix things up with shading, by using lines and colours to demonstrate the lighting. I plan on working more on using inks and start combining that with pens just so that the lines I make can be seen more clearer on the paper.

@Simon @Alan Maya Issues

Fig 1

Today when I opened Maya, whenever I click on an object, numbers appear over the polygons. It really clutters up the workspace and I was wondering of a way to get rid of it. It was fine the other day, apart from being a bit lagging and flashing whenever I did anything to an object, so I have no idea why Maya started doing this now. Also I work on mac at home but i don't know if that effects anything here or??

Fig 2: Its so cluttered that I have no idea whats even there now

Animation: Flash Animation using Reference Images 2

Continuation of my animation from last week, adding and altering the frames.

Production Art: Additional Building Layouts

Fig 1: Square Two Floor Building Layout Drafts

Fig 2: Square Building Layout Drafts

These are some more production art drafts/layout designs for the remaining two of my five buildings for my digital set, before I use the best ones to make orthographs out off.

Film Review: Edward Scissorhands

Fig 1: Film Poster for "Edward Scissorhands"

Edward Scissorhands was a Tim Burton film made in 1990. Considered one of Burton's greatest films, it stars Johnny Depp as the titular character and Winona Ryder as Kim, the daughter of the suburban family that take Edward in. The film is a deconstruction of the "American Dream", of how consummerism offers a sense of individuality by making everyone follow the same rules and trends. The opposition of the common movie stereotype of white is good, black is evil is flipped in the film, with the gothic mansion on a hill where Edward lives quite happily before the events of the film and the suburburn town below being a source of evil due to consummerism and the lust of indivituality the townspeople have towards Edward.
"Certainly, Burton's modern fairytale has an almost palpably personal feel: it is told gently, subtly and with infinite sympathy for an outsider who charms the locals but then inadvertently arouses their baser instincts."- (Marc Lee, The Telegraph, ref: 30/11) Here Lee describes the emotive reasons for Edward and the locals of the Suburbs and how it changes from an innocent interest of the newcomer only to change to greed when they realise how they can use him to their own advantages. 


At the start of the film, it shows a snowy scene, around christmas time of the main town, before the camera leads into a bedroom of a young girl and her grandma who begins to tell a story of Edward Scissorhands.
From there the story shifts to Edward, an innocent and unique man, who is forced to live in a community in the Suburbs when the make up specialist, Peg Boggs, goes to the mansion on the hill just outside of the Community below looking for new clients for her products. Upon finding Edward she decides that it is for the best that she takes him with her, and while its all fine and well at the beginning due to Edwards hands being intriging to the fellow neighbours of the Boggs' household. They then progress to turn on him after consuming his talents in sculpting through their hedges, dogs and their hair. As the year goes by, Edward goes from rags to riches, being a guest on a tv show from all his work in the sub-urbs, to starting to run his own hair salon. However, before the salon is open for business, Edward is forced along with Kim, her boyfriend, Jim, and their friends to steal from Jim's parent's house. Edward's scissor like hands being able to lock pick the door giving the thieves easy access. An alarm is tripped, trapping Edward inside while the others flee despite Kim's protests of trying to save him. The police come to the house, arrest Edward and send him off with a warning when they realise that he isnt able to understand entirely the situation he was in. From then on the town is much more hostile to him, wary of what awful thing he'll do next. On Christmas day the Boggs family plan a Christmas party for the town, even though it is obvious that no one would come because of Edward. Kim notices that it's started to snow outside, a very rare occurance in the Sub-urbs, and upon entering the garden she sees that its none other than Edward making an ice sculpture, the chippings from it floating around her as she comes in closer. A sudden noise ruins the peace and Edward turns from sculpting, his hands scrapping Kim's wrist, leaving deep cut marks, Jim sees this and accuses him of assault, bullying Edward to leave the town despite Kim's pleas not to. Edward flees horrified and Kim tells her boyfriend whats what, dumping him before going off to search for the missing man. While the search is going on, Jim and his friend starts to drink heavily in his van, and then proceeds to drive around the neighbourhood looking for Edward, almost running over Kim's younger brother, Kevin who was returning home from a friends house. Edward saves him but in his act of kindness he accidently cuts up the boys face with his hands, the neighbours see this and are outraged.

Fig 2: Screenshot Displaying the Suburbs and the Castle on the hill rendered in Matte Painting

The Sub-urban lifestyle proves too much for Edward, seeming more like a nightmare to him when compared to his previous life up in a European Gothic mansion high on the hillside. So he runs from the town back up to his origin, with a raging mob, with Kim ahead of them, storming up behind him. Kim finds him in the attic and finally embraces him, sorry of the town and their corruption of his talents. Jim then appears, wanting Edward dead for taking his girl. However it is Edward who is victorious as Jim falls from the roof window to his death. Kim then says a tearful goodbye to Edward before persuading the other townsfolk that both Jim and Edward perished in the struggle. The folk of the Sub-Urb leave and the characters are back were they started at the beginning of the film.
The movie cuts back to the Grandmother and Granddaughter. The girl asks the old woman how she knows of this story and she reveals that she is Kim. The young girl then enquires if she as ever seen Edward again to which the old lady replies no as she didnt want to see the man with her looking older and him staying the same due to being a science experiment. The film then pans the front garden of the mansion, just like it did in the beginning, panning inside the house until it shows Edward making another ice sculpture of a young Kim.

Fig 3: Screenshot of Edward and Kim embrassing after the ordeal they went through in the Suburban

Production design is a statement piece for a Burton film, and Edward Scissorhands is a great example of that. With Bo Welch as the production designer, who work on the film Beetlejuice, the film is able to display the differences of the Suburban lifestyle and look to the mansion on the hill. With the sub-urbs being a colourful, pastel houses and the gothic mansion on the top of the hill that looks like it was set in a completely different part of the world from the 1950's American-styled town below.
"...with production design by Bo Welch and cinematography by Stefan Czapsky, it involves bright colours in unlikely combinations, (for instance, a lavender-suited Avon lady driving a dandelion-yellow car) and fashionably ridiculous late-1950's artifacts placed prominently throughout the characters' bunkerlike homes. On the lawns of these houses, more and more of Edwards's singular topiaries begin to appear" (Janet Maslin, The New York Times ref:30/11)
The camera angles in the film are the standard, tracking, panning at high, low and establishing angles, however there are points in the film where the camera takes on the point of view of a security camera placed in the corner of the room, like at Jim's parents house when it was raided and Edward gets trapped inside. The way that shot is set, with a fish-eyed lens distorting the scene in an arching manner immerses the viewer in the fact that Edward is trapped in the room with no possible escape, completely helpless and alone in that situation. The costume design in the film fits in with the 50's America theme that is prominant through-out the film.

One of the main weaknesses of the film however, according to Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly (referenced on 30/11) is that the film shares a narrative weakness of Burton's other films, emphasised by the fact that in this film he is trying to create a rounded, emotional story, that the faults in the narrative appear much more obvious. Gleiberman states that the film didnt take a plot point involving the relationship of Edward and Kim and the conflict between her boyfriend. Not going down the root that fairy-tales usually go for that results in a fight over the girl in white. He laments that the film just didn't turn dark enough as a result of Burton trying to not make the movie disturbing for children. Overall he feels as though, while the characters have depth, the story doesn't, it has chances to get its hands dirty yet pulls back, exspecially for the ending.


The way the film drifts back from the story being told to flashbacks to the scienctist who made Edward as a way of making the perfect human, was well played, there was enough to get a sense that Edward respecting the old man as a paternal figure while the scienctist treated him like his son, reading to him what it means to be human and poetry with pure joy as Edward listens. There were enough of these scenes throughout the movie and well spaced as to not be confusing while being able to supply backstory to Edward's origins in the mansion on the hillside.

Overall the film is well acted, with wonderful set design that establishes 1950's America and the boom of consummerism well. While some viewers might have some issues have with how Burton doesnt push the film to be a little bit more darker, exspecially at the climax. The depth of the characters and how you see all the featured neighbours go from friendly to a raging mob, and how Edward tries to adapt to the world outside of the mansion on the hillside.




Bibliography

Janet Maslin- http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE2D81338F934A35751C1A966958260&partner=Rotten%2520Tomatoes

Marc Lee- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11298442/Edward-Scissorhands-review-a-true-fairytale.html

Owen Gleiberman- http://www.ew.com/article/1990/12/07/edward-scissorhands

Fig 1- http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81ZZQ0f71WL._SL1500_.jpg

Fig 2- https://fogsmoviereviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/edward_scissorhands_hill.png

Fig 3- https://fogsmoviereviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/edward_scissorhands_hug.png