Page 304
The nun (Peggy Healey) is undressed by her lover (Ela Troyano)
in
Damned If You Don't
(1987).
MacDonald:
Your critique of the film in
Damned If You Don't
doesn't allow the viewer to experience that film's sensuous levels.
Friedrich:
Well, that's not completely true. Or I hope it isn't. The way I frame the imagery, very close, is to me a way of appreciating the really high drama of
Black Narcissus
. A lot of narrative films seem to have some very exciting moments connected by a lot of filler, and it was fun to pare
Black Narcissus
down to the bone, to string the exciting moments together and really focus on the sexual hysteria at the core of the film. Powell and Pressburger used lighting to such great effect and created a lot of expression in the faces, which is all you have to work with when you're dealing with characters who are completely covered. I tried to bring some of that out.
Some people have reacted negatively to the roll bars that happen when you film from a TV screen. They think the roll bars are there because I had no control over the technology. When I saw
Black Narcissus
in London, I thought, "This is a fantastic film; I'm going to use it," and the next day I set up my camera and shot it. I came home, developed the film, and there were the roll bars. I thought, "Okay, I can either go back and work it so that there aren't roll bars or I can keep going the way I've begun." Once I had decided that the roll bars were part of the image, it became really interesting to edit for the rhythm of