Artist Black Narcissus

Startlingly bold in its blazing Technicolor and frank sexuality, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 classic Black Narcissus re-created a Himalayan convent entirely within Pinewood Studios, and the controlled and artificial setting adds to the film’s psychological intensity. The title refers to an exotic perfume that clouds the air around the mission, redirecting the thoughts of Mother Superior Deborah Kerr to the sensuous world she and her fellow nuns meant to leave behind. Isolated in a land of extremes, Kerr is overcome with temptation when she finds herself erotically obsessed with David Farrar, the district’s handsome British overseer.

Updated 06/15/2010