Black Narcissus

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

 
Black Narcissus Criterion Blu-Ray

20 Jul 2010

Blu-Ray

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price:$31.96

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  • United Kingdom
  • 1947
  • 101 minutes
  • 1.33:1
  • English
  •  
  • Spine #93

SYNOPSIS: This explosive work about the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is the epitome of the sensuous style of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. A group of nuns—played by some of Britain’s finest actresses, including Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, and Flora Robson—struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad. A darkly grand film that won Oscars for Alfred Junge’s art direction and Jack Cardiff’s cinematography , Black Narcissus is one of the greatest achievements by two of cinema’s true visionaries.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

Sister ClodaghDeborah Kerr
The Young GeneralSabu
Mr. DeanDavid Farrar
Sister PhilippaFlora Robson
The Old GeneralEsmond Knight
KanchiJean Simmons
Sister RuthKathleen Byron
Sister HoneyJenny Laird
Sister BrionyJudith Furse
Angu AyahMay Hallatt
Joseph AnthonyEddie Whaley, Jr.
ConShaun Noble
Mother DorotheaNancy Roberts

Credits

DirectorMichael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Written, produced, and directed byMichael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Adapted from the novel byRumer Godden
Photographed in Technicolor byJack Cardiff
Music and sound score composed and conducted byBrian Easdale
EditingReginald Mills
CostumesHein Heckroth
Production designAlfred Junge

Disc Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, created with the participation of cinematographer Jack Cardiff and director Michael Powell’s widow, editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
  • Video introduction by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier
  • Audio commentary featuring Powell and director Martin Scorsese
  • The Audacious Adventurer, a video piece in which Tavernier discusses the film and Powell
  • Profile of “Black Narcissus,” a documentary featuring members of the Archers’ production team
  • Painting with Light, a documentary on Cardiff’s Oscar-winning work on Black Narcissus
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Black Narcissus:
Empire of the Senses

By Kent Jones July 20, 2010

“It is the most erotic film that I have ever made,” wrote Michael Powell of Black Narcissus. “It is all done by suggestion, but eroticism is in every Read more »

Black Narcissus

By Dave KehrJanuary 29, 2001

When Black Narcissus opened in England in 1947, Great Britain was barely emerging from the agony and exhaustion of World War II. Nothing could be further from gray, hungry postwar Read more »

Black Narcissus

By Ronald HaverJuly 11, 1998

Black Narcissus was the sixth production from that remarkable pair of artists Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, collectively known as The Archers, who dominated the creative Read more »


News

The BFI Celebrates
Cardiff’s Career

May 05, 2010

Oscar-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff, whose ravishing Technicolor compositions graced the Powell and Pressburger tours de force Black Narcissus and Read more »


Press Notes

Press Notes: Black Narcissus

July 21, 2010

“The most beautiful Technicolor movie ever made,” writes critic Ty Burr in a Boston Globe review of the new Criterion release of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Read more »

Other Editions

Black Narcissus Criterion DVD

20 Jul 2010

DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $29.95

Criterion Store price:$23.96

Add to Cart