The Red and the Black

            The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus are British films made in the 1940s by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

            Do not see these movies if you have an aversion for any of the following:

            1) The fantastical

            2) Extreme romanticism

            3) Heightened emotions

            4) Exotic subject matter

            5) Out-of-this-world opulence

            From the opening scene of The Red Shoes, as young men and women rush to get the good seats in the balcony, there’s a pervasive strangeness. For one thing, these people are excited about music and dance (imagine that!); they lean over the railing, avid to hear the opening strains of a new ballet. Secondly, the coloring of the film is not right in the conventional sense, and there’s an odd play of light. Even the character’s faces are unlike those we expect of movie stars.

            The plot begins when one young man, in extreme concentration on the music, suddenly opens his eyes, as if startled and perplexed — he’s heard something. . . .

            And so we’re off. Off in the rich, lavish world of ballet. The passion is for music and dance. And, in the case of two characters — Vicki and Julian — passion for each other. Yet there is conflict, and an element of preordained doom. The dance sequence that forms the centerpiece of the film is based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Vicki is to dance the role of the girl who wants so very much to wear the red shoes to a ball; late in the night she tires, “But,” as Lermontov, the musical director, explains, “the red shoes are not tired. The red shoes never tire. They dance her out into the streets, they dance her over the mountains and the valleys, through fields and forests, through night and day. Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by, but the red shoes dance on.”

            This long dance sequence is a frenetic and nightmarish.

            The world of ballet, in its highest reaches, is filled with personalities that are bigger than life, given to extravagant dress, gestures, and — most important — emotions. But it’s also a harsh world, one that has stringent standards. There’s a striving for perfection, and this demands all a person can give. But does “all” mean that you must forsake love? For Lermontov it means exactly that, and he demands no less from his protégée, Vicki. But what of her love for Julian?

            The last words she speaks in the film are “Take off the red shoes.”

            In Black Narcissus the conflict is between the flesh and religion. Five nuns are sent to an ancient castle high in the Himalayas to open a school, care for the ill, and teach the word of God. It’s a daunting task. So strange a world, so far from everything they’ve known! The monks who had previously tried to establish a post of Christendom soon abandoned it.

            The massive castle is built into the side of a mountain. The family that ruled for many centuries used it as a place for bacchanalian revels. Paintings depict what went on inside those walls; Sister Clodagh, who is in charge, immediately orders them to be taken down.

            The resident Britisher in the village, Mr. Dean, provides necessary information to the newly-arrived nuns. He’s cynical about their chances, predicting that they will not stay for the first rains. From the beginning, and increasingly, he gets pleasure from toying with the young (and attractive) Sister Clodagh. There are seductive undertones in his approach to her, as if he is trying to draw her out from beneath her nun’s wimple. He’s handsome and has an imposing masculine presence, but he’s far from the romantic ideal. He’s chosen a way of life that suits his eccentric and misanthropic nature. Though not incapable of compassion, he puts strict limits to what he’s willing to give. Love? — no. He cares about the fulfilling of his sexual needs, and for that there are native girls. The vibrations this man sets off have deep — and tragic — repercussions.

            The film dwells in the subterranean realm of emotions.

            The strange mountain world affects three of the nuns by making them susceptible to thoughts they have long (and successfully) repressed. They cannot live with the feelings that have risen to the surface. This film is almost devoid of religion; the nuns are merely human beings. One nun’s repressed sexuality and anger explodes in madness. An older nun, in charge of the garden which will supply them with food, plants flowers instead; she pleads to be sent away. Sister Clodagh begins, unwillingly, to recall events from her youth. She had been in love, but her lover left her; we see scenes from that time of her life as she relives them in her imagination.

            At the end of the film the rains begin.