194. Black Narcissus (1946)

Directed By Powell and Pressburger

Synopsis

The epic story of defeat under adversity in the middle of sexual frustration and the threats of the alien.

Review

Scorsese says that each time he saw the Archers production company symbol he knew he was in for something special. I fully agree and I know how looking forward I am for Powell and Pressburger's films on the list. This is the fourth of five films by them on the list and three of them, including this one, have been nothing short of amazing.

The first thing you notice is the astounding cinematography of the film, making it look way ahead of its time, no wonder it won both the Oscar and Golden Globe for best cinematography. Then there are the amazing sets. And last but not least after you finished it you get the idea of the story.

In 1946 to make a film symbolic of the loss of the British empire through a tale of nuns slowly going insane in a convent in the furthest reaches of India, through a combination of sexual frustration and inability to understand the world that surrounds them is to say the least brave.

The film gives you a genuine sense of how alien it all is, a mix of fascination and fear impregnating the exotic. It is all full of a dark glamour, making this one of the most beautiful and spectacular films in the list until today, with the slight problem of the two-dimensionality of most characters as well as an insistence on black-ups.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Black Narcissus was released only a few months before India achieved independence in August 1947. Film critic David Kehr has suggested that the final images of the film, as the nuns abandon the Himalayas and process down the mountain, could have been interpreted by British viewers in 1947 as "a last farewell to their fading empire"; he suggests that it is not an image of defeat "but of a respectful, rational retreat from something that England never owned and never understood"

Revenge of the Sexually Frustrated Nun: