Black Narcissus

BySheikh Javed Mansuri
Black Narcissus

This classic, brilliantly colorful film from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger follows five nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, into the Himalayas to start a hospital and school for the local villagers. The battle against the elements and the local culture proves to be a formidable one, though Sister Clodagh’s most difficult tasks comes from within—through the envious Sister Ruth and Clodagh’s own struggle with her calling and commitment.  

The film’s location plays an integral role in the overall thematic arc as a battle between competing worlds. Clodagh struggles to reconcile her pastoral memory of the past with the stony heights of her present. The nuns struggle to bring their English Christianity to bear on the lives of the Himalayan villagers. Powell and Pressberger’s stunning use of color helps to underline these dualities, providing a consistent stream of beautiful images both natural and unnatural, lush and rough, pitting worlds against one another in a visual sense. These formal elements serve as fine complements to the narrative of the film, which follows the nuns as they navigate their way between their competing worlds.  

Beyond the exploration of these opposing realms, the film also serves as a meditation on the Incarnation, particularly in the notion of Christ’s descent from heaven to earth, His taking on of human flesh, and His service among humanity. The crucifix finds its way into shots repeatedly—appropriate for a nunnery to be sure, but also drawing the viewer to reflect on the intersection of this narrative with the life of Jesus. Black Narcissus is no allegory, but its theological echoes are undeniable. 

—John Adair

  1. Directed by: Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
  2. Produced by: Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger George R. Busby
  3. Written by: Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger Rumer Godden
  4. Music by: Brian Easdale
  5. Cinematography by: Jack Cardiff
  6. Editing by: Reginald Mills
  7. Release Date: 1947
  8. Running Time: 101
  9. Language: English

Arts & Faith Lists:

2010 Top 100 — #77

2011 Top 100 — #44

Similar Posts

  • Nights of Cabiria

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (1957) transcends the well-worn cliche of the golden-hearted prostitute. The film stars Fellini’s wife and constant collaborator, Giuletta Masina, as a woman named Maria Ceccarelli but known to everyone in her social strata as Cabiria. Cabiria was pushed into prostitution by her destitute mother when she was young and beautiful, and her…

  • 7th Heaven

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Director Frank Borzage first transports us to a dark, ugly, seedy world of poverty and inequality in Paris. The pre-code masterpiece deals with the later-taboo topics of abuse, prostitution and atheism. The Hayes’ Code was designed to present and protect “moral decency” on film. But by showing some of the realities of life that the…

  • The Burmese Harp

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Kon Ichikawa’s deeply humane, spiritually resonant masterpiece is routinely but reductionistically described as “pacifist” or “anti-war.” War, though, is the occasion for the central theme, not the theme itself, which is nothing less than the intractable mystery of suffering and evil, affirmation of spiritual values, and the challenge to live humanely in evil circumstances. Adapted…

  • Touch of Evil

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Set on the border between Mexico and America, Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil tells the tale of a murder investigation that pits two determined men against one another: Miguel Vargas, an official in the Mexican government, and Hank Quinlan, an American police captain. Vargas is an articulate, young, handsome, wealthy, educated, straight-shooter with a bright…

  • Witness

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Review coming. Directed by: Peter Weir Produced by: David Bombyk Edward S. Feldman Wendy Stites Written by: William Kelley Pamela Wallace Earl W. Wallace Music by: Maurice Jarre Cinematography by: John Seale Editing by: Thom Noble Release Date: 1985 Running Time: 112 Language: English Arts & Faith Lists: 2020 Top 100 — #77

  • How Green Was My Valley

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Despite its reputation as the picture that undeservedly beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture and Director Academy Awards, How Green Was My ValleyM remains a stirring and vital portrait of a close-knit community in all its glory—and all its failings. Seen through the eyes of a boy approaching manhood, it’s the chronicle of a quaint Welsh community and one…