Black Narcissus 👎

Doesn't get
X F-Rating

Fails
X The Uphold Test
X The Rees Davies Test
X The White Test

Interestingly enough, there's plenty of representation of ethnic diversity in the crowd scenes. Now, I don't think the ethnically Indian girl actually ARE Indian, but they are presenting as and dressed appropriately. Some of them are even named (Sita and Zoya?) and have a speaking role.
And then they go and spoil it all by loads of cultural insensitivity and white people playing colored people. *sigh*

Passes
V Bechdel Test
V Mako Mori Test
V Sphinx Test

Rotten Tomatoes 100% IMDb 8 - oh, wow...

X Doesn't pass Furiosa test :-D

The Maisy Test

XGender Balance - Gender Representation

* Most of the cast females, most of the crew male
* Continuity and assistant continuity were both women
Most of crowd and extras male
Are they equal? No.

It fails both
X The Hagen Test 
X The Koeze-Dottle Test

X Gender Freedom:

It was pretty stereotypical. And stupid.

Deborah Kerr was 26 when this was made, so was Kathleen Byron. (David Farrar was 33)

Clodagh seemed to be upper class in Ireland - with emeralds and fox hunting and salmon fishing Her "high school sweetheart" moved to USA and didn't marry her, so she became a nun. Huh?

Why Ruth became a nun is totally beyond anyone, even Ruth. Why they allowed her to become a nun is even more obscure. Apparently anyone can become a nun. No.

I like the relationship of Angu Aya and mr. Dean. Now Aya was one of the smartest, most likable characters in the movies, though she enjoyed beating up Kanchi too much. (May Hallatt was 71)

Sister Superior is, of course, the boss. Now, she is depicted as bossy. Having too much self-importance. So of course they introduce the British Agent mr. Dean, who is rude, insolent and won't accept a woman having any authority. He keeps putting her in place, showing her how stupid and ignorant she is, how she does everything wrong, keeps mansplaining and ordering everyone around.
This, BTW, causes the biggest problem in the movie. He disagrees with Sister Superior's way of dealing with her nuns, and walks over to a nun who was just disciplined for being stupid, and tells her that she wasn't stupid at all and that he appreciates what she did. And she falls in love with him, because he's the only guy around, at least white and sister Ruth is a racist

"He (Sabu's character)'s so vain, like a black peacock!"
"He isn't black!"
"They all look the same to me", 

she hates sister Clodagh and this guy just put her in place, and took Ruth's side against Clodagh. Ruth says "you were the first to ever be nice to me". It's all mr. Dean's fault.

Now, Clodagh and Ruth are both stupid, incapable, haughty and intolerant.
Sister "Honey" is too kind and causes a child's death which makes all the "natives" avoid them. Don't show any mercy and kindness to those dirty little natives, they will bite you.
Sister Philippa tells the native farmers how to improve soil, and then she goes mad and starts growing flowers in stead of vegetables. They won't get any onions, just tulips.
Sister Briony is the only sane and sensible one in the bunch. But, no-one appreciates her. Maybe because she's fat.
I mean, this whole thing is nasty.

I'm too sexy...

 Now, we don't know if Clodagh is in love with mr. Dean also, or if it's all in Ruth's head. So, let's say Clodagh isn't romantically involved with mr. Dean, so their relationship passes.
The other women not in love with mr. Dean all have secondary roles.

In the end it doesn't matter that we have the five nuns vs British agent (and not like spy, but a person who deals with things for the British government) - and thus more female screentime and words, because they are all presented so stereotypically. Even the "head nun" is under mr. Dean. She does what he says, not the other way around.
And mr. Dean can do ANYTHING, even plumbing, which none of the sisters can do. Because they are women.

Now, we could say that the male lead isn't presented as a very macho. He rides in the movie on a tiny pony wearing those ridiculous short shorts and that horrible hat. Now, who thought that was a good idea? I mean, as many of the locals are presented wearing the same thing, it makes me think he's dressing in local garb, to fit in, because it's comfortable, what ever. The thing with that is that this is supposed to happen in West Bengal, and people don't wear things like that there.

Mr. Dean is a pretty laisse-faire type of a guy, relaxed and not very macho, a bit of a softie. Also, he isn't a violent man. But he also doesn't care, goes to Christmas service drunk and likes to shock nuns with sexual innuendos.

Yawn

We can also say that Clodagh is shown wearing pants, fishing. But that was before she became a nun, so it doesn't really count. 

V  Gender Safety:

Yes, it passes. No-one gets raped and there are people in it who aren't conventionally pretty.
The above image is the closest to nudity we get. Unless one counts the ridiculous wall paintings. I mean, in one of them, the woman had her nipples half way up to her shoulders...
It was really well made, all those paintings looked real, and it had the feeling of India, even though it was filmed 100% in UK. THAT was amazing with this movie. Also the photography was pretty amazing. Now, that's irrelevant when it comes to feminism, though.

Another thing that touches this is the gratuitous sensual dancing scene with brownface Jean Simmons. Now, I would put that to Orientalism and Exoticism, than objectifying women - only Indian women were objectified, and this girl was presented as naughty.
An interesting fact with this is that they could let Jean kiss Sabu, even when she was playing an Indian girl... after all, she WAS a white woman. Can't have good white women kiss brown men on screen. Also, she was 17. Sabu was 23.

Some sexual abuse in form of innuendos and "shocking the nuns".

V Sexy Lamp Test

XSocial Justice and Equality:

No fucking hell no. This movie is deeply racist, there is no representation of non-white and able people except in stereotypical roles.
There is no critique what so ever of anything, no social commentary, no effort to put in any deeper meaning into this story.

More about that in this review: Black Narcissus

European nun telling the Nepalese farmer how to fix the soil.

V The Representation Test B

X Kent testX Aila testX The Waithe TestX The Villalobos Test

V The Ko Test

Well... Ayah is a non-white-identifying, female person with a speaking role in more than 5 scenes and she speaks English. Does that count?

X The Peirce Test

I really don't think she has needs or desires she pursues actively. And I don't empathize with nor understand her desires and actions. What ever little there is of that. So I don't think this passes. I suppose technically she does, but... I mean, she comes to this place, because she is told to come. She takes with her the people she is told to take with her. She tries to do what she is sent there to do, with very little success, and that little success she owes to mr. Dean; Big General (who is a kind of a radjah) and a 6 years old boy, the cook's son and translator. Yeah... they weren't given a grown up translator, some women do with a 6yo.

V The Villarreal Test

Er... I'm going to give it pass. She is the Sister Superior and the boss of the abbey.

X The Landau Test

A movie fails if:
A primary female character ends up dead

Yep. Because of a man. Fail.

X The Feldman Score

4... maybe 5... or maybe 2.
Does the female protagonist determine story outcome? Not really. She manages to not get pushed over the ledge. She doesn't save anyone's life, she doesn't help anyone from going insane, she doesn't change anything, no-one will remember her in a couple of years. I suppose Ruth wouldn't have fallen in love with mr. Dean had she not existed; and Ruth wouldn't have tried to kill her. But - no. It was a pretty meaningless movie.

Notes:

I know Nepalese horses are pretty small, but those white shetland ponies are ridiculous. A young Rajah who speaks perfect English wouldn't ride a pony.

And the jealousy drama going on between sister Ruth and sister Superior is ridiculous.

Ruth didn't go mad at all. She put on sensitive shoes to run through the jungle, and took with her the nice pumps.

The mad woman tries to kill the main character over a man. Thumbs down.

How could this have been better?

*Don't make it. I mean, really. The story is boring and stupid and meaningless.
But, OK...

*Give sister Clodagh more suitable crew to work with. She needs a gardener, a janitor, a couple of teachers, one for the children, another for older girls. Some sort of a cook. Now, she was going to start a chapter for her organization in the middle of no-where, in a "palace" where the "general" used to house his harem of probably dozens of women. They need staff. One can handle up to 12 people.
So that they wouldn't have been so dependent of the agent.

*Give her a better enterpreter. Preferable a woman of color. A REAL POC.

*Make some of the sisters POC. Give them diversity. One could easily put in people with disability, GLBT people...

*Skip the "sexy exotic woman - effeminate manboy" love story. Skip the racism, and orientalism and exoticism and all that crap.

* Add some criticism of the colonialism, cast system, what ever.

*The movie was called "Black Narcissus". Because that was the perfume the manboy used and the racist bitch decided to call him that, because it fits his vanity and skincolor. I mean... WTF? Now, all this discussion is totally irrelevant to this story. Unless... are we supposed to think Ruth was in reality the black narcissus, narcissistic and black of soul? Or what?
Now, THERE's a story for you. Make it Ruth's story. Clodagh is uninteresting and boring.

* Make them succeed. I mean, nuns are pretty OK with isolation and living in a closed community, close to God. :-D I mean, that's what they do! So make them strong women who actually can find the beauty and God in a mountain in India.
Have the Abbess discuss with the Holy Man and realize that all the religions are the same, and God what ever one calls him/her/it is the same.
Make them co-operate with the natives and let them help them, in stead of arrogantly spreading white supremacy all over the world and insisting you do thing the European Way. So when it's time for India to become independent, they choose to become Indians and give up their British citizenship.

* Don't make the main character a 20something idiot who couldn't stand her boyfriend leaving her for job in America. Make her a grown-up who made the decision of becoming a nun for valid reasons.

* St. Faith is the patron saint of prisoners, pilgrims and soldiers. Make something of that.

Primitive Spectacle in Black Narcissus