Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.


November 2007 activity

Total Log Entries: 25

Total Comments: 6


Full Archive



Black Narcissus / UK / 1946

How Powell and Pressburger managed to become quite so commercially successful is something of a mystery to me, despite my belief that they are perhaps the finest creative team in cinema history. This is not quite the weirdest of the lot- A Canterbury Tale wears that crown- but it is a strange, perplexing film, rich in atmosphere and stunningly beautiful to look at, despite being filmed almost exclusively on the Pinewood backlot. Perhaps the greatest achievement here is making a film about nuns, in which nothing of great note really happens until the end, utterly riveting, and even terrifying: Black Narcissus feels almost like a horror film without the horror, an exploitation movie without the exploitation, brimming with all the seediness and gross, repressed sensuality that made Peeping Tom such a critical blow to Powell’s career. The difference is that here he keeps things in check, simmering just below the surface, equally disturbing but mercifully hidden.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: FlimFour
27 Nov 2007 11:35 AM | Submit Comment


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