Black Narcissus:
Empire of the Senses
By 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 »
- 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 Clodagh | Deborah Kerr |
| The Young General | Sabu |
| Mr. Dean | David Farrar |
| Sister Philippa | Flora Robson |
| The Old General | Esmond Knight |
| Kanchi | Jean Simmons |
| Sister Ruth | Kathleen Byron |
| Sister Honey | Jenny Laird |
| Sister Briony | Judith Furse |
| Angu Ayah | May Hallatt |
| Joseph Anthony | Eddie Whaley, Jr. |
| Con | Shaun Noble |
| Mother Dorothea | Nancy Roberts |
Credits
| Director | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger |
| Written, produced, and directed by | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger |
| Adapted from the novel by | Rumer Godden |
| Photographed in Technicolor by | Jack Cardiff |
| Music and sound score composed and conducted by | Brian Easdale |
| Editing | Reginald Mills |
| Costumes | Hein Heckroth |
| Production design | Alfred 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:
Black Narcissus
By January 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 July 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 »
