Black Narcissus: Information from Answers.com "; ANSW.AnswerTipEnabled = true; var staticFileHost="http://site.answcdn.com/main85756";var webtipfile="http://site.answcdn.com/main85756/js/web_answertip.js?ANSW.afid=10"; var loaded={}; function loadscript(filename){ if (typeof loaded[filename]=="undefined"){ loaded[filename]=true; var head = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]; var script; script = document.createElement('script'); script.type = 'text/javascript'; script.src = filename; head.appendChild(script); } } // Load the answer tip on the first dbClick event. jQuery(document).dblclick(dblClickHandler); function dblClickHandler(evt){ SaveDblClick(evt); loadscript(webtipfile); jQuery(document).unbind('dblclick',dblClickHandler); } // save info on click preceding the double click jQuery(document).click(clickHandler); function clickHandler(evt){ if (typeof ANSW=="undefined") { ANSW = new Object();} if (typeof ANSW.dblclick=="undefined") { ANSW.dblclick = {};} var oe = evt.originalEvent; ANSW.dblclick.rangeParent=oe.rangeParent; ANSW.dblclick.rangeOffset=oe.rangeOffset; } function SaveDblClick(evt){ if (typeof ANSW=="undefined") { ANSW = new Object();} var oe = evt.originalEvent; if (typeof ANSW.dblclick=="undefined") { ANSW.dblclick = {};} ANSW.dblclick.target=oe.target; ANSW.dblclick.srcElement=oe.srcElement; ANSW.dblclick.clientX=oe.clientX; ANSW.dblclick.clientY=oe.clientY; ANSW.dblclick.pageX=oe.pageX; ANSW.dblclick.pageY=oe.pageY; jQuery(document).unbind('click',clickHandler); }
"; var sor2 = "src='" + sor + "'"; ifr = ifr.replace("__SRC__",sor2); document.writeln(ifr);
On this page
Library
Animal Life
Business & Finance
Cars & Vehicles
Entertainment & Arts
Food & Cooking
Health
History, Politics, Society
Home & Garden
Law & Legal Issues
Literature & Language
Miscellaneous
Religion & Spirituality
Science
Sports
Technology
Travel & Places
Q & A
Black Narcissus
AMG AllMovie Guide:
Black Narcissus
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Movies
Plot British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger once again deliberately courted controversy and censorship with their 1947 adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron play the head nuns at an Anglican hospital/school high in the Himalayas. The nuns' well-ordered existence is disturbed by the presence of a handsome British government agent (David Farrar), whose attractiveness gives certain sisters the wrong ideas. Meanwhile, an Indian girl (Jean Simmons) is lured down the road to perdition by a sensuous general (Sabu). While Kerr would seem most susceptible to fall from grace --we are given hints of her earlier love life in a long flashback--she proves to have more stamina than Byron, who delivers one of moviedom's classic interpretations of all-stops-out, sex-starved insanity. The aforementioned flashback was removed from the US release version of Black Narcissus so as not to offend the Catholic Legion of Decency. While the dramatic content of the film hasn't stood the test of time all that well, the individual performances, production values, and especially the Oscar-winning Technicolor photography of Jack Cardiff are still as impressive as ever. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Review The casual perception of the British film industry is that it's a mere shadow of its American counterpart, especially where dramas and adventure films are concerned. That was doubly true during World War II, when even the best directors in England were hampered by low production values. The writer-producer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger -- known corporately as "The Archers" -- did their best to change that perception, and nowhere did they challenge it more forcefully than with Black Narcissus. The 1947 film, based on a novel by Rumer Godden, was so startlingly beautiful, intense yet quietly dramatic and fiercely sexual, that it managed to get censored at the behest of the Catholic Legion of Decency and, yet, even in that censored form, earned a brace of Academy Awards. The film was startlingly unusual for 1947: its plot centers around a group of Anglican nuns who, due to their own psychological and sexual shortcomings, fail to found a convent at the foot of the Himalayas. Over the decades, Black Narcissus has managed to hold its audience and find new admirers -- in the 1980s, 13 minutes that had been censored from the American version finally came to light in a new print of the film. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
Cast
Deborah Kerr - Sister Clodagh
Sabu - Young Prince
David Farrar - Mr. Dean
Kathleen Byron - Sister Ruth
Esmond Knight - Old General
Flora Robson - Sister Philippa
Jean Simmons - Kanchi Jenny Laird - Sister 'Honey' Blanche; Judith Furse - Sister Briony; Shaun Noble - Con; Eddie Whaley, Jr. - Joseph Anthony; Nancy Roberts - Mother Dorothea; May Hallatt - Angu Ayah; Ley On - Phuba
CreditArthur Lawson - Art Director, Hein Heckroth - Costume Designer, Sydney Streeter - First Assistant Director, Michael Powell - Director, Emeric Pressburger - Director, Reginald Mills - Editor, Brian Easdale - Composer (Music Score), George Blackler - Makeup, Christopher G. Challis - Camera Operator, Ted Scaife - Camera Operator, Alfred Junge - Production Designer, Jack Cardiff - Cinematographer, Michael Powell - Producer, Emeric Pressburger - Producer, George R. Busby - Producer, Alfred Junge - Set Designer, W. Percy Day - Special Effects, Syd Pearson - Special Effects, Jack Higgins - Special Effects, Michael Powell - Screenwriter, Emeric Pressburger - Screenwriter, Rumer Godden - Book Author, Robert Lynn - Third Assistant Director
Previous:
Black Moses of Soul (1974 Film), Black Moon: Behind the Moon (2004 Film)
Next:
Black Natchez (1967 Film), Black Nation (2009 Film)
English¨‹
English¨‹ Deutsch Espa?ol Fran?ais Italiano Tagalog
Search unanswered questions...
Browse: Unanswered questions | Most-recent questions | Reference library
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Browse: Unanswered questions | New questions | New answers | Reference library
Featured Videos:
Top
View more Entertainment & Arts videos
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Black Narcissus Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Black Narcissus
poster
Directed by
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Produced by
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Screenplay by
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Based on
Black Narcissus by
Rumer Godden
Starring
Deborah Kerr
Sabu
Jean Simmons
David Farrar
Flora Robson
Kathleen Byron
Music by
Brian Easdale
Cinematography
Jack Cardiff
Editing by
Reginald Mills
Distributed by
General Film Distributors
Release date(s)
26 May 1947 (1947-05-26)
Running time
100 minutes
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Budget
?280,000
Black Narcissus is a 1947 film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden. It is a psychological drama about the emotional tensions within a convent of nuns in an isolated Himalayan valley, and stars Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar and Flora Robson, and features Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons and Kathleen Byron.
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
3.1 Banned scenes
3.2 Lost scene
4 Historical context
5 Critical responses
6 Changes from the novel
7 Home media
8 Awards
9 See also
10 References
10.1 Notes
10.2 Bibliography
11 External links
Plot
A group of Anglican nuns travels to a remote location in the Himalayas (the Palace of Mopu, near Darjeeling) to set up a school and hospital and 'tame' the local people and environment, by conversion and gardening, only to find themselves increasingly seduced by the sensuality of their surroundings in a converted seraglio, and by the local British agent Dean (David Farrar). Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), the Sister Superior, is attempting to forget a failed romance at home in Ireland. Tensions mount as Dean's laid-back charm makes an impression on Clodagh, but also attracts the mentally unstable Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron), who becomes pathologically jealous of Clodagh, resulting in a nervous breakdown and a violent climax. In a subplot, 'the Young General' (Sabu), heir to the throne of a princely Indian state who has come to the convent for his education, becomes infatuated with Kanchi, a lower caste dancing girl (Jean Simmons).
Cast
Deborah Kerr as Sister Clodagh
Flora Robson as Sister Philippa
Jean Simmons as Kanchi
David Farrar as Mr. Dean
Sabu as The Young General
Esmond Knight as The Old General
Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth
Jenny Laird as Sister Honey
Judith Furse as Sister Briony
May Hallatt as Angu Ayah
Shaun Noble as Con, Clodagh's childhood sweetheart
Eddie Whaley Jr. as Joseph Anthony, young interpreter
Nancy Roberts as Mother Dorothea
Ley On as Phuba, Dean's servant
Production
Of the three principal Indian roles, only the Young General was played by an ethnic Indian; the roles of Kanchi and the Old General were performed by white actors in makeup. The role of Kanchi was a change indeed for 'the demure Miss Simmons.' Kanchi, 17, is described by Rumer Godden as ' a basket of fruit, piled high and luscious and ready to eat. Though she looks shyly down, there is something steady and unabashed about her; the fruit is there to be eaten, she does not mean it to rot.' On landing the part Simmons told her mother she had been given a part in which she had to have 'oomph'.[1] 'The Indian extras were cast from workers at the docks in Rotherhithe.[2]
The film was made primarily at Pinewood Studios, but some scenes were shot in Leonardslee Gardens, West Sussex, the home of an Indian army retiree which had appropriate trees and plants for the Indian setting.[3][4] The film makes extensive use of matte paintings and large scale landscape paintings to suggest the mountainous environment of the Himalayas, as well as some scale models for motion shots of the convent. Powell said later, 'Our mountains were painted on glass. We decided to do the whole thing in the studio and that's the way we managed to maintain colour control to the very end. Sometimes in a film its theme or its colour are more important than the plot.'
For the costumes, Junge, the art director, had three main colour schemes. The nuns were always in the white habits that he designed from a medley of medieval types. These white robes of heavy material stressed the nuns' other-worldliness amid the exotic native surroundings. The chief native characters were robed in brilliant colours, particularly the General and his young nephew, in jewels and rich silks. Other native characters brought into the film merely as 'atmosphere' were clad in more sombre colours, with the usual native dress of the Nepalese, Bhutanese and Tibetan peoples toned down to prevent overloading the eye with brilliance.
According to Robert Horton, Powell set the climactic sequence, a murder attempt on the cliffs of the cloister, to a preexisting musical track, staging it as though it were a piece of visual choreography. Also, on a note of personal tension that existed behind-the-scenes, was the fact that Kerr was the director's ex-lover, and Byron his current one. 'It was a situation not uncommon in show business, I was told,' Powell later wrote, 'but it was new to me.'
Banned scenes
The version of the film originally shown in the United States had scenes depicting flashbacks of Sister Clodagh's life before becoming a nun edited out at the behest of the Catholic Legion of Decency.[5][4]
Lost scene
Originally, the film was intended to end with an additional scene in which Sister Clodagh sobs and blames herself for the convent's failure to Mother Dorothea. Mother Dorothea touches and speaks to Sister Clodagh welcomingly as the latter's tears continue to fall. When they filmed the scene with the rainfall on the leaves in what was to have been the penultimate scene, Powell was so impressed with it that he decided to designate that the last scene and to scrap the Mother Dorothea closing scene. It was filmed but it's not known if it was printed.[6]
Historical context
Black Narcissus was released only a few months before India achieved independence from Britain in August 1947. Film critic Dave Kehr has suggested that the final images of the film, as the nuns abandon the Himalayas and proceed down the mountain, could have been interpreted by British viewers in 1947 as 'a last farewell to their fading empire'; he suggests that for the filmmakers, it is not an image of defeat 'but of a respectful, rational retreat from something that England never owned and never understood'.[7] The story in the film quite closely follows that of the book, which was written in 1939.
Critical responses
In The Great British Picture Show, the writer George Perry stated, 'Archers films looked better than they were ¨C the location photography in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff in Black Narcissus was a great deal better than the story and lifted the film above the threatening banality'. In contrast, the critic Ian Christie wrote in the Radio Times in the 1980s that 'unusually for a British film from the emotionally frozen forties the melodrama works so well it almost seems as if Powell and Pressburger survived the slings and barbs of contemporary criticism to find their ideal audience in the 1980s'.[8] Marina Warner, introducing the film on BBC2 (on a nun-themed film evening, with Th¨¦r¨¨se), called it a masterpiece:
The suggestions continually hover on the brink of hyperbole. The film achieves its extraordinary impact by daring so much against all bounds of decorum, far in excess of realism. The crimson lipstick Sr. Ruth applies turns her into a kind of werewolf, the kittenish wiles of Jean Simmons also convey, in a different mode, a fantasy of female sexual appetite. The crazed and sometimes cruel flapping of Angu Ayah adds yet another flourish to the portrait of female hysteria. In this convent, this house of women, all the women are mad.
[...]
Again and again Powell submits Sr. Clodagh to visitants from the world of chaos and passion she has foresworn in order to touch her, shake her, break her down. First and foremost David Farrar's Mr. Dean, all bare, hairy legs, insolence and roguish eyes, erupts into her convent, the spirit of maleness embodied. The holy father in the grounds issues a mute challenge to her faith. Luxury, desire, pleasure, humiliation all thrust in upon her in the forms of the young General with his emeralds and perfumes, and of Kanchi, the young Jean Simmons in dark panstick with a jewel in her nose, and Kathleen Byron's famous pent up, ravening portrayal of Sr. Ruth finally holds up a mirror of the abyss into which Sr. Clodagh too might fall, and indeed only just escapes in more ways than one. As in Clarissa, Samuel Richardson's classic novel about prolonged seduction and embattled virtue, Powell pits the chaste and steely Deborah Kerr against all these assailants and watches her thrash about with relish. While Lovelace had to rape Clarissa to achieve his end, Powell only has to show that Mr. Dean was right and Sr. Clodagh was mistaken. The ending of Black Narcissus vindicates the world against the cloister, libido against superego, male against female.
In Michael Powell's own view this was the most erotic film he ever made. 'It is all done by suggestion, but eroticism is in every frame and image from beginning to end. It is a film full of wonderful performances and passion just below the surface, which finally, at the end of the film, erupts'.
Changes from the novel
While much of the film's dialogue is taken verbatim from the novel, the film does not follow the novel exactly. In particular the film does not include Mr Dean's rejection of Sister Clodagh's design for the chapel, in favour of his own design of an open-sided building without door, located atop the ridge, above the Holy Man. Additionally, the film does not have sister Philippa being replaced by Sister Adela, a stern nun who is horrified at the dereliction of duty by the original nuns.
Home media
A DVD was released in the UK on 26 September 2005. A restored version was released on Blu-ray in the UK on 23 June 2008 by ITV DVD. It is also available in Region 1 DVD from the Criterion Collection, who released a Blu-ray version on 20 July 2010.[9]
Awards
Lead actress Deborah Kerr, who won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for her role as Sister Clodagh.
The filmmakers were recognised with several awards for their work on Black Narcissus:[10]
Jack Cardiff won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography
Alfred Junge won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction
Deborah Kerr won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
See also
BFI Top 100 British films
References
Notes
^ Picturegoer 2 August 1947 'Are They Being Fair To Jean Simmons?
^ Michael Powell, commentary on the Criterion Collection DVD, ch.6
^ Powell 1986, p. 562
^ a b Street 2005
^ Eder, Bruce. "Black Narcissus > Review". Allmovie. All Media Guide. http://www.allmovie.com/work/black-narcissus-5906/review. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
^ Crook, Steve. "Lost Scene from Black Narcissus". The Powell & Pressburger Pages. The Powell and Pressburger Appreciation Society. http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/47_BN/LostScene.html. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
^ Kehr, Dave (29 January 2001). "Black Narcissus"]. From the Current. The Criterion Collection. http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/94. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
^ Christie 1994
^ blu-ray.com
^ "Black Narcissus ¨C Awards". Nytimes.com. The New York Times Company. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/5906/Black-Narcissus/awards. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
Bibliography
Christie, Ian (1994). Arrows of Desire. London: Faber. ISBN 0571162711.
Godden, Rumer (1939). Black Narcissus. London: Peter Davies.
Powell, Michael (1986). A Life in Movies: An Autobiography. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-59945-X.
Powell, Michael. Million Dollar Movie. 1992: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-59947-6.
Stone, John. 'Gothic in the Himalayas: Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus.' The Gothic Other: Racial and Social Constructions in the Literary Imagination, ed. Ruth Anolik and Douglas Howard. (Jefferson, NC: , 2004): 264-286.
Street, Sarah (2005). Black Narcissus. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-845-11046-3.
Vermilye, Jerry (1978). The Great British Films. Citadel Press. p. 112. ISBN 080650661X.
External links
Black Narcissus at the Internet Movie Database
Black Narcissus at the TCM Movie Database
Black Narcissus at AllRovi
Black Narcissus at the British Film Institute's Screenonline, with a full synopsis, film stills, and clips viewable from UK libraries
Black Narcissus entry at the BFI 100, a selection of the top British films by the British Film Institute
Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
DVD reviews
Comparison of Region 1 and two Region 2 DVDs at DVDBeaver
Review by Noel Megahey of French Region 2 at DVD Times (UK)
v ˇ¤ d ˇ¤ ePowell and Pressburger
The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
1930s
The Spy in Black ˇ¤ The Lion Has Wings 1
1940s
Contraband ˇ¤ An Airman's Letter to His Mother ˇ¤ 49th Parallel ˇ¤ One of Our Aircraft is Missing ˇ¤ The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ˇ¤ The Volunteer ˇ¤ A Canterbury Tale ˇ¤ I Know Where I'm Going! ˇ¤ A Matter of Life and Death ˇ¤ Black Narcissus ˇ¤ The Red Shoes ˇ¤ The Small Back Room
1950s
The Elusive Pimpernel ˇ¤ Gone to Earth ˇ¤ The Tales of Hoffmann ˇ¤ Oh... Rosalinda!! ˇ¤ The Battle of the River Plate ˇ¤ Ill Met by Moonlight
1960s
Peeping Tom 1 ˇ¤ They're a Weird Mob ˇ¤ Age of Consent 1
1970s
The Boy Who Turned Yellow
1 Powell only.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Donate to Wikimedia
\n"; for(i=0; i < radlinks.length; ++i) { html += "" + radlinks[i].term + "\n"; } html += "\n"; var obj = document.getElementById('top_radlinks'); if(obj!=null){ obj.innerHTML = html; obj.style.display='block'; } } google_ad_client = 'ca-gurunet_radlinks_js'; google_ad_channel = 'short-link-definitions_1 RA_LUentertainment RA_LUUS'; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '0'; google_language = 'en'; google_encoding = 'utf-8'; google_hints = ''; google_safe = 'medium'; google_adtest = 'off'; google_num_radlinks = '4'; google_max_radlink_len = '25'; google_rl_filtering = 'high'; google_rl_mode = 'relevance';
Related topics:
In the Long Run (1998 Album by Dave Ellis)
Agents of Change (2003 Album by Janice Borla)
Encounter (1976 Album by Flora Purim)
Related answers:
What is Black on black crime? Read answer...
Who sang black is black? Read answer...
What is black and white black and white and black white? Read answer...
Help us answer these:
Did blacks have whit or black doctors?
What artists Black is Black covered by?
Why do we see black items as black?
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
AMG AllMovie Guide. Copyright ? 2011 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Movie Guide ?, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Black Narcissus. Read more
Related answers
Who acted in the 1947 flick Black Narcissus?
Why black is black?
Is Black Black?
How black can black get?
Is black really black? ? More
TV listings
Answer these
Who starred in 'Black Narcissus'?
Was David Farrar accually singing in Black narcissus?
Is a black dress with a black shrug to black? ? More
Featured guides
Securing a Legitimate Bad Credit Loan
Baby Formula Coupons Printable
Multiple Sclerosis Disability
Cool Camera Accessories
Comparing High Speed Internet Providers
Follow us
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Mentioned in
In the Long Run (1998 Album by Dave Ellis)
Agents of Change (2003 Album by Janice Borla)
Encounter (1976 Album by Flora Purim)
Power to the People (1969 Album by Joe Henderson)
Foresight (1967 Album by Joe Henderson)
Alfred Junge (Actor, Drama/Romance)
Two Crowded Hours (1931 Film)
Black Narcissus (2002 Album by Mephista)
The Music of Joe Henderson (2000 Album by Jim Snidero)
Just Natural (2001 Album by Ronnie Burrage)
Just Buddy's (1983 Album by Buddy Childers Big Band)
Into a New Journey (1982 Album by Ambiance)
Musically Yours (2008 Album by Paul Carr)
Kathleen Byron (Actor, Drama)
? More? More
Site
Sitemap
ReferenceAnswers
WikiAnswers
VideoAnswers
Coupons
Guides
Company
About
Jobs
Press
Legal
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
IP Issues
Disclaimer
Tools
1-Click Answers
AnswerTips
Webmasters
Apps/Add-ons
Community
Guidelines
Reputation
Roles
Help
Updates
Email
Watchlist
RSS
Blog
International Sites English Deutsch Espa?ol Fran?ais Italiano Tagalog
Copyright ? 2011 Answers Corporation
"); }
