The filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were early adopters of color in their films. Along with THE RED SHOES, this film is a shining example of how color can play a huge role in a picture when used correctly. The intoxicating eroticism of the Himalayan setting is brought brilliantly to life in rich visual splashes. Color works as a mysterious character that haunts every frame of this masterpiece.
Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr, THE INNOCENTS) is a snobby and arrogant nun, who is assigned her own mission in the Himalayas with a handful or so of other nuns under her, despite her young age. A prince has given the nuns an old palace where a harem was once housed. The prince pays his people to attend the school there and the nuns are afraid to treat the sick in their hospital because of the fear that the natives will rebel against them if the patient ends up dying. British ex-patriot Mr. Dean (David Farrar, GONE TO EARTH) tries to help the nuns, but he butts heads with Sister Clodagh due to her holier than thou disgust for his frivolous lifestyle. However, Mr. Dean’s sexual appeal is not lost on off-kilter nun Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron, 1996’s EMMA).
The strange climate and customs of the natives clash with the pointless hypocrisy of the nun’s mission. Soon enough the nun’s start to drift in their attitudes — some for the better and some for the worse. Highlighting the sexual tension in the air is the relationship between the young general (Sabu, THE JUNGLE BOOK), who comes to study at the mission, and the flirtatious orphan girl Kanchi (Jean Simmons, HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE). The flashbacks of Sister Clodagh’s life before she became a nun are strange and almost surreal, which is the tone the entire film takes on toward the harrowing end.
The sequence when Sister Ruth rebels against Clodagh is classic and underlines the amazing use of color and imagery used throughout the film. The bell and the precipice and the weather change of the final scene are grand images that also have deep poetic value. It’s one of those films that doesn’t blow you away at first, but secretly works on your psyche for days with its unforgettable visuals and subtly subversive narrative that deals with the hidden fantasies of nuns. And in historical context it deals with the hidden fantasies of the British Empire, which tried to rule over a country it could never truly understand.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
