Episode 62: It's Like 'The Shining', But With Nuns: On 'Black Narcissus'

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2019

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 1947 British film Black Narcissus is many things: an allegory of the end of empire, a chilling ghost story with nary a spook in sight, a psychological romance, and a meditation on the nature of the divine. Its weirdness is as undeniable as it is difficult to locate. On the surface, the story is straightforward: five nuns are tasked with opening a convent in the former seraglio of a dead potentate in the Himalayas. But on a deeper level, there is a lot more going on, as Phil and JF discover in this conversation touching on the presence of the past, the monstrosity of God, the mystery of the singular, and the eroticism of prayer, among other strangenesses. REFERENCES Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburged (dirs.), Black Narcissus Rumer Godden, author of the original novel Stanley Kubrick, The Shining Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition Tim Ingold, British anthropologist -- lecture: "One World Anthropology" Jonathan Demme (dir.), The Silence of the Lambs Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist Bruno Latour, On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods Don Barhelme, American short story writer Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher Weird Studies episode 16: On Dogen Zenji's Genjokoan The King and the Beggar Maid Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers “Painting with Light,” featurette on the Criterion Collection DVD of Black Narcissus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:23.3	For more episodes or to support the podcast, go to weirdst. I'm J.F. Martell. Today, our topic is the classic
0:54.0	1947 British film,
0:56.1	Black Narcississus, written and directed by Michael Powell and Amrik Pressburger,
1:00.8	and starring Deborah Carr, my wife tells me that's how it's pronounced, Kathleen Byron and David Farrar.
1:07.0	The film was based on a novel, also discussed in this episode, by Ror Godin, who happens to be Phil Ford's first cousin twice removed.
1:16.2	But that's not the reason Phil suggested we talk about this movie, at least I don't think it was.
1:20.7	Black Narcissus is bonafide weird in the subtlest, most delicious sense of the word.
1:25.6	The plot is deceptively simple.
1:28.8	In the dying days of the British Empire, a group of nuns are sent into the Himalayas to open a convent in a disused palace,
1:34.5	which once served as a Sorrelio for the local magnate's many lovers. What unfolds is a slow
1:40.5	descent into madness that Stanley Kubrick would emulate with his usual bombast in his
1:46.4	adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining 30 years later. Black Narcissus is an unspoilable film,
1:52.5	so don't worry if you haven't seen it. If you do want to watch it, either before or after
1:56.8	listening to the podcast, Criterion has a beautiful restoration of it on their new streaming channel,
2:02.4	which, incidentally, is one of my favorite things of 2019.
2:07.2	Speaking of which, this episode will be our last for the year.
2:10.6	We're going to take a break for the holidays and be back with episode 63 on January 8th, 2020.
2:16.2	This has been a truly wonderful year for Weird Studies, and I'll take
2:19.5	this opportunity to thank you for being part of it. Special thanks goes to all our Weird Studies
2:24.2	patrons, whose generous pledges help us take the time we need to research, record, edit, and put
	...

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