Black Narcissus
OK, I know with what I'm about to admit everyone is going to be shocked, but until this miniseries I had not heard of or watched the original movie adaptation of Rumer Godden's book that is a classic starring Deborah Kerr. Black Narcissus won Oscars and accolades when it was released in 1947, eerily on the day that would be my birthday come the seventies. So, putting aside my lack of a complete film education, what it meant was I was going into this series fresh. In fact I saw an ad only a day before it aired and it was being touted as Diana Rigg's last appearance, that is until Edgar Wright admits defeat and releases Last Night in Soho to streaming, so I said, let's see what this Black Narcissus is all about! Also I have probably rightly pissed off Edgar Wright now by not knowing this movie and saying that movie theaters are dead and streaming is the only safe option in this day and age. Oh well, I'm still looking forward to Last Night in Soho... So this version of Black Narcissus, compared to no other, was a wonderful little idyll of nuns trying to do good against all odds in a very haunted place. I mean this miniseries just oozed Gothic vibes, it was delicious! I constantly love how the building blocks of what is considered Gothic can be changed time and time again to create a whole new slant that you'd never think of. Nuns tend to align themselves more with the horror genre, and to tackle their desires and damnation in a human and real way within the Gothic sphere felt fresh to me, and again note I haven't seen the original film. Though the driving force of the three episode miniseries is Sister Ruth and her going more and more off the rails in this remote location. I don't know if you're supposed to hate Sister Ruth and long for her corruption and death, but I totally did. Her obsession with the male caretaker, Mr. Dean, and her delusions about Mr. Dean and Sister Clodagh make her more and more unstable and I loved every minute of it. I think this was all enhanced by the performace of Aisling Franciosi as Sister Ruth. I knew I knew her from somewhere and wherever that was I hated her in that. Turns out it was The Fall, the Gillian Anderson/Jamie Dornan show, which is, in my mind, the most overrated piece of shit I have ever watched. It is easily one of the worst shows I've ever seen and wish I could forget I ever saw it. Anyway, Aisling was the shitty teenager in love with the father of the kids she babysat and who knew he was a killer and was all OK with that. So yeah, I liked seeing her suffer in this. But does that say more about me or Black Narcissus?
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