I have chosen to analyse this trailer as the film changes its genre like our film would if it was real. At the beginning of Black Narcissus the audience is unaware this it will turn into a thriller, this is the same with our film. This film was made in 1947, I thought it would be interesting to look at an older trailer as we have only looked at modern ones so far. This is a theatrical trailer as I could not find a teaser trailer on YouTube, however it could be that this is the one and only trailer for Black Narcissus.This is a link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_tH3FaoLcU
These are basic notes i made from the trailer:
• Trumpets – announcement, celebration
• Caption; ‘the outstanding combination that gave you’
• Picture of some sort of parade in the background - people are standing still - diegetic sound of the trumpets
• Other caption fades and a new one appears; ‘A matter of life and death’
• Music changes to strings as the image fades (non diegetic soundtrack)– mountains appear
• On top on the mountains the names; Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger appear – these are British film makers
• Writing scrolls off screen and image cuts to a lake and woods behind it - camera tracks along as more captions appear – ‘again produce another screen achievement’
• Captions cut of screen then image cuts to image of mountains in the mist and the title of the film appears ‘ Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden’
• Image of a nun holding a cross appears – she is praying – VO(voice over)- ‘This is the story of a high endeavor that tried and tested a women’ The person speaking is a man - he speaks old fashionably and in a posh British accent
• This image changes to nuns gardening in the mountains – VO- ‘in the remote background of Asia’
• Cuts to an Asian man and women hugging –VO- ‘the story of a prince and a beggar maid’
• Over the shoulder shot- Cuts to a women looking insane holding a mirror and putting on lipstick – VO- ‘and of a nun who gave up here vows’
• Cuts to a nun – she is only light by candle light – she is trying to reason with the nun who has given up her vows – they are not the enemy – cuts to ex nun she is deluded- thinks that they are all jealous of her – light angle putting her in shadow – hinting that she is insane
• Cuts to two nuns and a man –VO- ‘the clash of strong personalities’ – there is then dialogue to show the clash of personalities between the man and one of the nuns - there is a shot reverse shot of a mid shot of the nuns with the man’s back to the camera – this cuts to a CU of the man then back to the mid shot.
• Image fades to nuns walking – VO- ‘the contrast of present peace and self denial with the rice memories of the full years that have past’ – during this VO there is the shot of the nuns walking this cuts to a shot of the nuns in the chapel praying and then cuts to a shot of dogs running (assume this is the ‘past’) and a man and a women riding horses
• Fades to a high angle shot looking down on the nuns eating and preparing food – VO – ‘They renounce the world of men but found that the world was not to be denied’ – during this the high angle shot cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the ex nun talking to the man – after the VO she tells his that she has given up her vows – he turns around and the camera follows him – there is then a CU of the ex nuns face as she says she loves him - this cuts to the back of the man’s head and he sharply turns around in shock (CU) – clear he does not love her
• Cuts to mid shot of nun talking to man – slightly over the shoulder – can’t see the nuns face – she then turns around – she is telling the man of her failures in this place – she is very upset – the shots go from a mid shot to a CU and then back to a mid shot as the man states that he said that this was ‘no place for a nunnery’ – he then talks of the place that they are in as if it is cursed
• The trailer then cuts to an image of the main actress before she name a nun it states her name and who cast her – at this point the soundtrack changes from the eerie strings to a flute sounding instrument.
• It goes through the main actors in the film and each has their own shot; ‘Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Jean Simmons and Kathleen Byron’
• This fades to an images of the nuns running in the wind and rain at night, the bells are ringing – shows panic – the string soundtrack starts up again
• Cuts to high angle shot of the ex nun ringing the bell and struggling with the main nun, they are very close to falling off the edge of the mountain – shows danger – the nun is then only holding on to the rope as the ex nun manages to push her off the edge – there is cloud beneath them to show how high they are
• Cuts to CU of the ex nun trying to make the main nun let go of the rope and fall – cuts to their feet as the nun tries to climb onto the ledge – there is then a low angle shot as the nun tries to climb up
• Cuts to a picture of the mountains seem at the beginning and shows the title of the film once more- the caption also states that the film will be shown in Technicolor – this shows the age of the film
• Then it cuts back to the lake and you can see a lot of people walking along side it – the credits are shown on top of this- as the music comes to a finale the trailer ends
This trailer gives a lot of the story line away, an audience knows from watching this trailer that although the nuns try they will not make a success of the nunnery in Asia and the one of the nuns will turn insane. It is also clear that the film has a romantic element because of the shots shown between the man and the main nun, also with him and the ex nun. It is also clear that the films genre changes away and becomes a thriller as it is clear that the ex nun is going to try and kill one of the other nuns as you see her dangling off a mountain. It does not however give away what happens in the end and so therefore still intrigues an audience and attracts them to go and see the film. It therefore serves its purpose.
Rach
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