Essentials: Black Narcissus

Year: 1947
Genre: Drama
Directed: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Stars: Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, Kathleen Byron, Dean Farrar, Sabu, Jean Simmons, Esmond Knight
Production: The Archers Productions

American poet A.R. Ammons once said, "There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world." Sister Clodagh (Kerr) had this much in mind when she took a Mother Superior position in a secluded former seraglio turned makeshift school and hospital in the Himalayas. She brings with her a bevy of Anglican sisters and the emotional baggage of a failed relationship back in Ireland. Looking to create a world anew under strict Anglican and Christian principles, the sisters are slowly seduced by the wild, untouched region they inhabit and the wanton attitudes of the locals including two wards: Kanchi (Simmons), and The Young General (Sabu). Aiding in the erosion of the order is Mr. Dean (Farrar) a hard-drinking British agent who takes a liking to Sister Clodagh and becomes an object of obsession to the unstable Sister Ruth (Byron).

The first thing that sets Black Narcissus apart from other films is it's all-enveloping beauty. Done largely at Pinewood Studios in England, Production Designer Alfred Junge and Cinematographer Jack Cardiff created an otherworldly microcosm out of mattes and vibrant color, romanticizing a part of the world most involved have never seen. Shot by shot Black Narcissus is among the most beautiful films ever made. The exoticism of the wild breeze, the vivid flora and detailed costume design of the locals barely contain the explosiveness of the story and the eroticism that lies just beneath the surface. Yet despite the production's dreamlike detail, there's something undeniably false about it. It's almost as if directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (known collectively as The Archers) wanted to make a statement about the futility of making a world in your own image where everything is controlled by some hard to define virtue.

Throughout the film, Sister Clodagh must contend with trials and tribulations that pares her reality with a romantic realism; a world she cannot comprehend and with rules that directly challenge her verisimilitude. She's scared, shes confused and her only solace is in the arms of a boorish man who seems at times to taunt as much as the easterly winds. Meanwhile Sister Ruth easily folds under the pressures of living too far from her reality and becomes a foil to Sister Clodagh's desires. Add to that Kanchi's sexuality, along with the presence of a nearby holy man, everything around Sister Clodagh erodes her faith through silent challenges that unsettle the fussy, drab routines of the order.

She's cool with it because she knows
he's coming back as a worm

Religious rigidity isn't the only thing at odds with the liberated emotions of the studio concocted Himalayas. Behind the beauteous production design there lies a subtle subtext. 1947, the year of Black Narcissus's release was also the year of Indian independence from colonial rule. Within that context, the film can be seen as a conflict between civilizations; one holding presumptive power over the other without truly understanding it. Much like Gandhi's revolution, the change comes not with bloody revolt but with a subtle change in consciousness; a tension that is puzzling to the British occupants yet seems unpractical to start a power struggle. This tension is further examined in The Young General's romance with Kanchi. The Young General (played by Sabu the only major character of Indian decent) uses Christmas mass as an excuse to see Kanchi and while Sister Clodagh seems aware of their budding romance, she does little to stop them. How can she when locals are being paid by the Old General (Knight) to attend their school and sisters are planting flowers instead of vegetables. The very fabric of their existence is falling apart; Concessions must be made and Generals Young and Old have all the power.

Lovingly crafted with vibrant colors and complex themes, drenched in eroticism and levels of hyperbole, Black Narcissus is unlike anything you're likely to see in your lifetime. Unlike Sanders of the River (1935), The Drum (1938) or The Four Feathers (1939) whose mission statements held colonialism to be a noble enterprise, at it's most grand, Black Narcissus displaces that nobility on an almost existential level. At it's most modest it is a psychological study of many desperate people trying to exist in isolation where nothing makes sense and may lead to madness.

Final Grade: A