Black Narcissus (1947)

Directed by

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Genre

drama film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 37m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 556 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of Anglican nuns attempt to set up a school and hospital in a remote Himalayan palace. They struggle with the harsh environment and their own inner conflicts, particularly when the presence of a handsome British agent stirs temptation and tension.

tensepsychologically intensevisually lushmelancholicslow-burnunsettlingatmosphericdramaticclaustrophobic

What happens

Black Narcissus is a 1947 British psychological drama film written, directed, and produced jointly by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the 1939 novel Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden. It stars Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, and Flora Robson, and features Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons, and Kathleen Byron. Set during the final years of British colonial rule in India, the film depicts the growing tensions within a small convent of Anglican nuns who have been invited to establish a school and hospital in the old harem of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain in the Himalayas. The nuns have trouble adapting to the harsh climate and antagonistic population. They come to rely on the help and advice of the Raja's British agent, a cynical Englishman whose attractiveness and panache become a source of temptation for the sisters. Black Narcissus received acclaim for its technical mastery, with the cinematographer Jack Cardiff winning an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography, and Alfred Junge winning an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. According to film critic David Thomson, "Black Narcissus is that rare thing, an erotic English film about the fantasies of nuns, startling whenever Kathleen Byron is involved". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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