BLACK NARCISSUS (1947)
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Flora Robson, Jean Simmons, Jenny Laird, Judith Furse
Genre: psychological drama
SPOILER ALERT for this 70+ year old film!
Let me just first address one of the worst things about this movie (and a warning if you're interested in watching this): Jean Simmons in brown face. Will get back to her character, Kanchi, later.
I went into viewing this without any prior knowledge save for that it's considered a classic, and it's about nuns (I usually like to watch this way, then do some research after). So, when I realize that these nuns are about to embark on missionary work, I definitely got more tense. Like we are about to dive into very pro-colonizer nonsense? I wanted to sit through it to see just what a movie of this time might have to say. It's a hit and miss on a lot of things, but still made for a very interesting movie. I would not recommend to folks looking for a chill time, especially POC who might feel they will have to "endure" its issues.
As mentioned, these (white) nuns embark on opening a clinic and school for the local people. It's established from the beginning that they have an attitude - whether conscious of it or not - of being superior. And they get checked on it hard, never making the pivot, unlike so many other stories about missionaries or "white teachers in the hood". They don't get their savior moment, which is refreshing.
Even still, the movie still exoticizes and infantilizes the native peoples. Even Mr. Dean, who is supposedly the closest to the locals and is guiding these nuns, describes the people as children. Yes, he is an intentionally deeply flawed character. He's willing to turn a blind eye to things, gets drunk, etc. Still, that notion is never actually called into question as the natives were never given any dimension. Mr. Dean sort of embodies the movie itself, as he never actually becomes a part of the community he's existing with.
Kanchi: yikes. Even beyond the brown face there's a lot of problems with the character. She's oversexualized when viewers are first introduced to her, doing an exotic dance that lingers on for a weird amount of time. The nuns were given real flaws to grapple with that makes the viewer question why they were so entitled to this new place they are in - in line with what the movie is saying. While Kanchi's behavior is boiled down to being so naive that you should actually pity her. The implications of that for the movie is kinda gross and again, rather infantilizing. May Hallatt plays another native, Angu Ayah, at least not in brown face but her character relies on being maniacal to signify that she is a mysterious native. Perhaps it would not feel off if there was a rounded POC cast. Which an attempt was made with The Young General (Sabu) but also he was so one-dimensional, the “good” sort who would never call-out or dissent in the first place to this colonialism in the first place.
That said, I appreciate that these nuns were all deeply flawed. One of them blatantly racist which to me seemed to hilight the insidious colonizer mindset rather then excuse the behavior of the other characters as being “not as bad”. In the end, they all still worked together as “sisters”, each were in the very least complicit. They were definitely allowed to be more complex and given more range to be more subtle.
I enjoyed watching the attempts at tackling themes about religious discipline vs human desire, and especially anti-colonialism - even though it hits a wall with the latter, evidently limited by the fact that it is created by white Britons with blind spots when it comes to POC characters.
David Farrar in shorts.