Black Narcissus (1947) is a film by the British director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger, based on the novel by Rumer Godden.

The film was made mainly at Pinewood Studios with some scenes shot in Leonardslee Gardens, West Sussex, the home of an Indian army retiree which had appropriate trees and plants for the Indian setting. It makes extensive use of matte paintings and large scale landscape paintings to suggest the mountainous environment of the Himalayas, as well as some scale models for motion shots of the convent.

Jack Cardiff won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Alfred Junge was similarly recognised for his Art Direction.

Plot

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A group of Anglican nuns travel to a remote location in the Himalayas to set up a school and hospital and 'tame' the wild local people and environment, by conversion and gardening, only to find themselves increasingly distracted by the sensuality of their surroundings in a converted seraglio. In essence, they are converted (or 'seduced') by the local people and the environment, rather than the other way around. The Sister in charge (Deborah Kerr) is attempting to forget a failed romance at home in Ireland and tensions mount when she has to deal with two men - the local British agent (David Farrar) and the young heir to the throne of a princely state (Sabu) who uses the scent 'Black Narcissus' imported from England. One of the nuns suffers a psycho-sexual breakdown, leading to a highly-charged dramatic climax.

References

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Sarah Street (2005). Black Narcissus, TCM British Film Guide, I.B. Tauris, ISBN 1845110463.

External links

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• Black Narcissus at screenonline
• Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
• David Kehr essay at criterionco.com

1947 films | British films | Films by Powell and Pressburger | Films shot in Technicolor

Narciso Nero