Powell & Pressburger: Black Narcissus
October 16, 2024
Enchanted Evenings: The Boundless Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
In the high Himalayas Anglican nuns (Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron and company) try to establish a convent school, but the natives’ earthy ways, and the erotic fires of human nature, are seductive. Can “civilization” tame timeless forces? Red lipstick as rebellious liberation.
On the Blog - Film Notes: Black Narcissus
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Passes: $125 | $85 SIFF Members - includes full series access
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Michael Powell believed that “Art is the child of sex and religion,” flesh and spirit, sacred and profane, diabolical and divine. The deep drives of body and psyche manifest in the artist’s images and words. Anglican nuns in white, devoted to poverty, chastity and obedience, and led by sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), attempt to establish a convent school in the high Himalayas. Their personal inner turmoils, and the culture clash between their hidebound, repressive codes and the natives’ free and easy ways, prove formidable. But maybe they shouldn’t fight against the sensual temptations of beauty and eroticism, the pleasures of being alive. Sister Clodagh remembers a lost love, flowers are planted instead of vegetables, and Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) doesn’t hide her lust for British agent Mr. Dean (David Farrar). Unleashing forbidden urges is thrilling, but intense passion can be dangerous. The wild rising tempo of the climactic ten minutes is heightened by Brian Easdale’s pulse-beat music and cinematographer Jack Cardiff's flush-of-desire Technicolor. But it is Powell, who knows the visceral power of close-up lips painted red, who calls the shots. With Sabu, Jean Simmons.
—Greg Olson
- Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Principal Cast: Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons, Kathleen Byron, David Farrar, Flora Robson
- Country: United Kingdom
- Year: 1947
- Running Time: 100 min.
- Producer: George R. Busby, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Screenplay: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell, based on the novel by Rumer Godden
- Cinematographers: Jack Cardiff
- Editors: Reginald Mills
- Music: Brian Easdale
- Awards: Academy Awards 1948 (Best Cinematography, Art Direction), Golden Globes 1948 (Best Cinematography)
- Filmography: Age of Consent (1969), They’re a Weird Mob (1966), Bluebeard’s Castle (1963), The Queen’s Guards (1961), Peeping Tom (1960), Honeymoon (1959), Night Ambush (1957), The Wild Heart (1952), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Gone to Earth (1950), The Red Shoes (1948), Stairway to Heaven (1946), I Know Where I’m Going (1945), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), 49th Parallel (1941), The Murder Party (1935), The Girl in the Crowd (1935), Rynox (1932), My Friend the King (1932)
- Language: English