Hell and high water to bring you my love

[sovay]

Talking about Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus (1947) on Facebook, I wrote of Kathleen Byron in her final scene: "She looks like a Fury, like a sick rose. She looks like she's dead and she looks like she'll eat you alive. In that last minute, she's never been more beautiful."

Writing that out made me realize that in the eleven years since I first saw the movie, Sister Ruth has acquired a soundtrack in my head and it's PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love":

I've lain with the Devil
Cursed God above
Forsaken Heaven
To bring you my love

Comments

[nineweaving]

Astounding scene. You've caught her.

Nine

[sovay]

Astounding scene. You've caught her.

Thank you. I want to see that movie again. I want, damn it, to see it on film.

[selkie]

Oh my God, it was in color the moment they released it? I thought the color had been added. Isn't it from 1947? It's always been that saturated and weird/lurid/fever fantasy, from new?

Were they TRYING for exotica erotica? Like, was that on the label the whole time and I'm bad at watching films?

[sovay]

Isn't it from 1947? It's always been that saturated and weird/lurid/fever fantasy, from new?

It has! Always. It made audiences gasp. I dream of someday seeing a Technicolor print.

Were they TRYING for exotica erotica? Like, was that on the label the whole time and I'm bad at watching films?

Powell has called it the most erotic movie he and Pressburger ever made. He's probably right. There's a level on which I am always surprised the source novel was by Rumer Godden, because anachronism notwithstanding, it really looks like they just filmed Tanith Lee.

[dhampyresa]

I love this picture and it plus your description makes me want to track down the movie.

[sovay]

I love this picture and it plus your description makes me want to track down the movie.

I would not consider this a bad idea. It's gorgeous. That still is representative.

(I will warn that a British-made movie set in India has a couple instances of white actors cast as South Asian characters; otherwise I think it should hold up. It did the last time I watched it.)

[gwynnega]

Such an indelible image.

[sovay]

Such an indelible image.

She's an icon.

[vandrendehare]

First of all: HOLY SHIT.

Second, I've always taken that chorus to be a checklist.
- Lay with the Devil.
- Curse God Above.
- Forsaken Heaven.
- Bring you my Love.
- Get Milk.

[sovay]

First of all: HOLY SHIT.

I give you the same caveat as dhampyresa above, otherwise it's one of the best movies about a demon lover there is.

Second, I've always taken that chorus to be a checklist.

A+.

(I like the placement of "Get Milk." I think you're right that it's the thing you do on the way home, having successfully forsaken heaven and brought love.)