Black Narcissus (1947)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Awesome Movie

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It seemed to me what they set out to due they failed at. It also seemed that most of the characters were off their rocker. I kept reading of the beauty. What I saw were obviously painted scenery. The only thing I can come up with the a bunch of artsy snobs who do nothing but find no fault in old movies just to make the selves feel superior to those who don't like it. They must have taken a film class in college. The story is dull. The characters are unrealistic. I would say laughable but I was too bored. Turn the channel.

Actually, watching the nuns in this film cook sausages would have increased the entertainment by a factor of 37. We needed to see some sausage cooking. Nothing happens in this film. What a boring waste of time the whole experience is. Basically, some nuns take over a derelict house high in the Himalayas in an attempt to provide teaching and medicine to the local community. Does this interesting plan work? I felt a bit disappointed in that I had bought this film on the recommendation of other reviewers. So, I'm here to redress the imbalance of those who have given nothing but praise for this snorefest. The film is filled with camp, over-acting nonsense, especially from Sister Kathleen Byron (Ruth) and caretaker May Hallatt (Angu). They put this film straight into the camp comedy genre. And what a total waste of Jean Simmons - she is coloured in brown and given no dialogue! This is one film that definitely needed some explosions, a car chase and some random nudity. You know, naughty nuns, that sort of thing. Be prepared for a very slow journey with a predictable ending. If you can't guess the ending early on, then may I suggest you go and join your local nunnery as this film has clearly been too over-stimulating. You must have been gripped. My recommendation would be to definitely watch a cookery programme over this tosh. Time for some sausages.

BLACK NARCISSUS is one of the famous films made by the directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It's about a hilltop nunnery occupied by a fine bunch of oppressed nuns, some of whom are gradually going crazy, while others are busy falling in love and Deborah Kerr desperately attempts to hold everything together. It's a psychological case study of isolation and repression, one which is very well acted by all of the principal cast members, and well-shot in Technicolor by the directorial duo. There's no denying that the once-controversial subject matter is now tame by modern standards, but that doesn't stop BLACK NARCISSUS being a cinematic milestone and quite probably the first movie to depict nuns as real people rather than just quaint and kindly religious figures.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Black Narcissus is a movie about nuns that takes every religious drama up to a whole new level. The movie tells the story about 5 nuns who are Protestants instead of Catholics led by Sister Clodagh (played by Deborah Kerr) who end up setting up a school in the Himalayas with lots of struggles of their own with lots of children wanting to learn things from them. The way that both Powell and Pressburger direct this movie reminds me of how the Coen brothers would direct their movies only that the Coen brothers movies are much more entertaining. There was a lot of other great performances in this movie from Kathleen Byron as the nun who is really sick of what Sister Clodagh is doing that she gets driven insane, a young Jean Simmons as an Indian teenager known to cause trouble frequently, Flora Robson, Jenny Laird, and Judith Furse as the three other nuns, Sabu (who was famous for playing Mowgli in the 1942 adaptation of The Jungle Book) as the young General, and David Farrar as Mr. Dean a man who would always help the nuns with their work and answer any questions they had for him. The most entertaining part of this movie is one of the final scenes in which you see Sister Clodagh is ringing the bell and then you see Sister Ruth (played by Kathleen Byron) trying to kill her when the attempt fails and especially for my first time ever seeing this film and that scene was the scene in the film that I least expected to happen. A masterpiece, as well as one of the greatest movies ever made.