Black Narcissus

Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK, 1947, 100 minutes

Like Jean Renoir's The River, Black Narcissus is based on a novel by Rumer Godden, and marks the Archers' first film whose source material is not their own.

A group of Anglican nuns are sent to establish a community in a remote kingdom high in the Himalayas. Lead by their Sister Superior - Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), they take up residency in a beautiful, mysterious palace which used to be the home of the Rajah's women. The Sisters' main contact with the local ruler (Sabu) is through a rude and dissolute Englishman, Mr. Dean (David Farrar). It is Sister Ruth's unrepressible desire for Mr Dean that breaks up the community and drives them into retreat.

Black Narcissus is a vitally important film in the history of cinema for two main reasons. Firstly, Powell realised that the story itself was intimate and dramatic and could easily be swamped by exotic, majestic exteriors filmed in Nepal. He needed complete control over the atmosphere of the film, and the only way to do this was to shoot everything in a Pinewood studio, using matte shots, glass shots, etc. and a huge set of the palace with painted backings. The result was two Academy Awards for art direction and set decoration.

The second reason is that Black Narcissus marks Powell's first experimentation with the notion of composed film, which involved writing the music first and shooting the film to playback The sequence lasts only 12 minutes, but it is the build-up to the climax of the film. In it the music (composed by Brian Easdale) dictates the movements of the characters and reveals their thoughts and intentions. As a result Powell creates a pulsating, scintilating film full of eroticism.

Review by Stephen Cox
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96