I mentioned the late British director Michael Powell again in a recent post. Now I see another blogger has posted several items about Black Narcissus.
This inspired me to transfer two scenes from the movie and splice them together. For myself, what makes Black Narcissus great is the always excellent Deborah Kerr and the absolutely breathtaking performance by Kathleen Byron. A case can be made for this cat fight being melodramatic and over-the-top, but for me it’s mesmerizing.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2010/JAN/BlackNarcissus.flv 320 240]
She could almost pass for Annette Bening in that frame I selected. Kathleen Byron is still alive, as far as I know. She played Ryan’s elderly wife in the framing sequences of “Saving Private Ryan.”
LOVE IT! When Deborath Kerr stands up trembling, I got goosebumps! One of the all-time great “cat fights” caught on film. You could clearly see the yearning in Kerr’s eyes when Byron applied the lipstick (“If only I hadn’t become a nun …”) Byron is so startingly beautiful, you could almost mistake her for any of our more classy contemporary actresses! (NOT the cookie-cutter starlets!)