dougdoepke This is a spellbinding movie that has haunted me for years. No other film in my sixty- odd years of viewing has so affected me. There is, beyond the obvious tangibles of superb artistry, an intangible quality that continues to elude me. Maybe it's that last scene of departure - the man framed against the mountain, the raindrops evanescing from the leaves, the procession passing into the mist. I know something has passed, yet something remains. But what? I know now that the movie is to be experienced, not decoded, a case where the figurative whole becomes a sum greater than any of its truly astonishing parts. The result projects that rarest of film qualities—an aesthetic that transcends artistry. Someone once observed that strange things happen when the practical mind of the English encounters traditional mysticism of the East. Strange and sometimes wonderful things, it should be added.

avik-basu1889 'Black Narcissus' was my first foray into the illustrious filmography of the legendary British filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The screenplay written by them is based on a novel of the same name written by Rumer Godden. The film is about a group of nuns who are sent to start a Christian convent in the beautifully exotic Himalayas.First I will comment about what I loved in the film. Without a doubt, the film looks absolutely gorgeous. The colours on the screen are visually vibrant and also thematically expressive. There are certain shots like Sister Ruth looking down the cliff while ringing the bell in the convent or the sequence of Kanchi dancing in the huge hall room which will stay with me forever. I had always heard that Powell and Pressburger made visually captivating films with the help of the Oscar winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff and watching this film just confirms those claims in my mind. Although the film has a very theatrical and operatic tone to it, Powell and Pressburger used a lot of subtle touches in their storytelling to accentuate some of the themes that are being explored. I also loved Deborah Kerr as the sister superior Sister Clodagh. I think a big theme being dealt with in the film is false pride. The convent and its nuns think that they will be able to control their new surroundings and the natives. This is expressed in a subtle way when Sister Clodagh orders the removal of a picture on the wall of a room in the palace which portrayed people having fun and being mischievous. To some extent this pride aspect can be seen to be a bit of a commentary on the philosophies of the Imperial British empire. Although they go to the Himalayas and strive to help the natives and educate them, their latent racist opinions and condescending demeanor is very noticeable. The natives are given the tag 'unreasonable children'. This pride also gets established in the fact that the convent itself is located at a very high altitude towering above the homes of the natives. Dean and the Holy Man are two important characters. Dean is someone who lives a carefree life without obeying any customs or rituals, while the Holy Man has completely given himself up to nature and 'God' and has distanced himself from everything earthly. Sister Clodagh actually gets irritated by both these mentioned characters and actually says that the sisters shouldn't allow themselves to become like either one of them. But in the end we see that not only do the sisters confront failure in trying to assert themselves in this new environment,instead it is the environment that gets the better of them and forces them to face their genuine desires, the ghosts of their past and their inner struggles.Now, I will shift to the aspects that didn't work for me. Firstly it is constantly spelled out by the characters in the film that this new environment is changing them, but I didn't get why. Never did I ever see why this new environment was having an adverse effect on the psyche of the sisters. Sister Philippa is a character that we are supposed to sympathise with, but it was a character that remained extremely underdeveloped in my opinion. Another thing that really didn't work for me was the acting by the actors playing the native characters. We see them using this stereotypical 'Indian accent' that Westerners associate Indians with and it gets a bit annoying after a while and the acting by these actors also gets very amateurish at times.So 'Black Narcissus' is a film that has a number of great aspects, but it unfortunately failed to bowl me over as a whole. I was greatly impressed by the visuals and certain aspects of the direction. But I also thought certain characters and themes remained underdeveloped and the acting from the actors playing the native characters became almost insufferably bad at times. Not the best way to start my exploration of Powell and Pressburger's work, but there are certain aspects of this film which irrespective of the negatives make me interested in further exploring them as filmmakers.

Rickting A film about emotional tensions, jealousy and lust starring... nuns. That automatically makes this religious drama considerably more interesting, but with its amazing photography and acting, this emotional roller coaster hits peaks as high as the mountain range it's set in. The story follows a group of nuns and their emotional crisis while isolated in a valley in the Himalayas. This is the first Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film that I've seen, and based on this I'd certainly be up for watching more. Sadly, like many older movies it suffers from pacing problems which will put off viewers used to faster paced and dumber modern cinema. Still, despite its dips, it completes its dramatic story arc in satisfying style and ultimately delivers on the hard hitting emotion. It's a very well acted movie, with Deborah Kerr standing out in particular as the lead, while every shot is stunning. It's a very well filmed movie and many images linger in the memory long after the emotionally stirring ending.Black Narcissus works very well as a story. It's emotional without being manipulative and sentimental and the characters are complex and fully realized. It may seem slow and mundane to modern viewers, which admittedly it is at times, but whenever the pace dips the film usually manages to regain your attention one way or another. Thematically it's a deep movie, and thanks to intelligent writing it all comes together very well. Today it remains a striking film, but it's difficult to imagine how powerful this was for viewers in 1947. It's recommended viewing for those who enjoy classic movies and it's a triumph for British cinema. It's not as quite as strong as, say, The Third Man, but be prepared before viewing. This one has a real sting even today, and it's worth watching for the wonderful cinematography alone.9/10

moviemaster If you haven't seen this movie, don't bother. Although it may have had some significance in 1947, now it merely seems quaint and very dated. I don't even know why I bothered to watch the whole thing. I thought something was going to happen besides the mad nun going mad. Movies of this period quite often featured a "native" like "Sabu" the magnificent. They were considered oddities by movie goers then, exotic. Certainly his costumes were. But of course they also needed Whites, dressed up to look "Indian" to play major roles, hence Simmons in what is probably her strangest role. But I have to wonder if it is not the fault of the screenplay, not the author which makes this such an uninteresting tale. It seems to be inspired more by Fort Apache (including ominous drum beats) than anything really Indian. She lived in India most of her life and seems to have written well of it. The story of a bunch of nuns (already a dubious subject for me) is ludicrous, offering "help" to the locals and the bringing the heathens to a real religion (as opposed to Hinduism -a sort of religion/ social structure over 5,000 years older than Christianity). It's preposterous, but plausible to Brits and Americans who understand nothing of the world, particularity in 1947. And of course it did happen, to no avail. The most gratifying part of the movie is the failure of the nuns as they ride off on their Shetland ponies. But as for entertainment, better to meditate for two hours for intellectual stimulation. The cinematography was good for the time. The costumes and setting were lavish. Amusing that not one part of it was filmed in India, mostly Pinewood studios. And to offset the ringing of the bell by Kerr they presented what was surely Tibetan monks blowing dungchen, not to be found anywhere near Darjeeling, even though it is in the farthest Northern reaches of India. Usually Rank movies are quite good. This was quite a disappointment.