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
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
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)
More like this
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Uncle Silas (1947)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.