Deborah Kerr as Sister Clodagh, who experiences the extremes of beauty and horror high in the Himalayas, in Powell and Pressburger’s BLACK NARCISSUS.


Ruth announces to Mr. Dean her plan to abandon her vows and leave St. Faith, and follow­ ing his rejection of her, devel­ ops the notion that behind his rejection is Sister Clodagh— whom she then irrationally in­ tends to murder. In addition to a taut script and


superb direction and acting, the technical credits of BLACK NAR­CISSUS are outstanding, and the film has been given a loving DVD presentation by Criterion. The cinematography by Jack Cardiff —who also participated in the creation of the digital master used for Criterion’s DVD trans­ fer—is generally regarded as some of the finest work ever done in Technicolor, and the Art Di­ rection by Alfred Junge is out­ standing—remarkably so, since nothing in the film was shot on location, but rather at Pinewood


56


Studios (both Cardiff and Junge received Academy Awards for their efforts). The matte paintings were created by Peter Ellenshaw (MARY POPPINS), while the special effects were overseen by W. Percy Day, a former appren­ tice of George Méfiés. The film’s remarkable tech­


nical achievement is detailed in the highly informative 26m 42s supplement specially made for inclusion on the Criterion disc: “Painting With Light,” a portion of PERSISTENCE OF VISION, a longer, feature-length documen­ tary about Cardiff by London- based filmmaker Craig McCall. The documentary includes com­ ments by Cardiff and actress Kathleen Byron specifically about the production of BLACK NAR­CISSUS, as well as observations by admirers of the film, such as Martin Scorsese. The disc also


includes several dozen behind- the-scenes production stills (courtesy of the Estate of Michael Powell) and stills from scenes not used in the final cut. Also in­ cluded among the supplements is the remarkably well-preserved 2m 32s original theatrical trailer. The audio supplement—not


precisely an audio commen­ tary—is a conversation between Michael Powell (who died in 1990) and Martin Scorsese, which was originally included on The Criterion Collection laserdisc release of this title in 1988. Scorsese proves to be a excel­ lent conversationalist, as he man­ ages to prompt Powell—then advanced in age and rather frail—to talk about his films and about BLACK NARCISSUS in particular. The conversation is slow and leisurely, but still infor­ mative. The liner notes by Dave

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