#when the wild indian girl is just a white dancer painted brown 😍

[fatimajpeg]

the red shoes (1948) will always be better than black narcissus (1947) like don’t play with me first of all the red shoes indulges in fantasy, artifice and theatrical tragedy in a way that black narcissus is absolutely incapable of. also the orientalist and colonialist gaze that permeates throughout black narcissus just blindsided me honestly why does the beauty of the Himalayan valleys need to be contextualised as alien, hostile & hypnotic exotic forces that compels the missionaries on a path of obsession and self-destruction (also how it’s this exotic land where the nuns want to break their vow of celibacy like ok lol). why can’t it just be set dressing to the story in the same way as the idyllic EURO sceneries were in red shoes. also the brownface ew

#when the wild indian girl is just a white dancer painted brown 😍 #also thru out i couldn’t stop thinking that they filmed black narcissus while we were still under british raj … lol