Black Narcissus. 1947. Written, directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

(8/25/00)

This is a strange film and I really couldn't grasp what it was all about. A group of nuns are offered the opportunity to move into a building in the Himalayas and set up a school and provide healthcare (that's the best way I can describe it) for the villagers.

The nuns take up residence in what was known as the "House of Women"--meaning it was where a nobleman kept his concubines. There are paintings of nudes on the walls. It's hardly the kind of atmosphere in which one would expect to find a group of English nuns.

It seems to be an atmosphere which challenges them, which makes them struggle with their denials. There is an attractive man. I think he is secretary to the nobleman who offered them the use of the house. The nuns have to struggle with their reactions to this man.

They are asked to care for a teenage girl who has "gone astray," who exudes sensuality and dresses provocatively. An Indian nobleman (perhaps the one who offered the place to the nuns or his successor) asks to study at the school, although it is a girls' school. They cannot turn him down and he flaunts his finery. (I think that the title, Black Narcissus, refers to his scent.) He has an affair with the sensual wayward girl and regrets it.

One nun is so affected that she resigns. She seems to go mad. The first time we see her in civilian dress is shocking. The film's most fascinating moment is when she tries to push the man who is tolling the bell off the cliff or mountain or whatever it is, falling to her own death instead.

Eventually the nuns conclude that it is not an appropriate place for them and leave. It is a strange, exotic, elusive film. I suspect that there are riches to be found in it if I could but get my bearings.