Visually stunning, intricate plot and Nuns gone crazy...that's what you get in Powell and Pressburger's adaptation of Rumer Godden's book - The Black Narcissus.
I was attracted to this movie after seeing the screen prints in one of my text books that I had to use for a film course I took at the University of Iowa (my alma mater!)...it looked visually stunning, and years later I finally bought a DVD copy for myself and I was not disappointed!!!!
Even in today's computer generated films, Jack Cardiff cinematography, Alfred Junge's Production Design, Peter Ellenshaw and W. Percy Day's Special Effects, still holds up pretty well...considering that the background was painted matte to recreate a Himalayan valley. The plot is basically simple...Sister Clodaugh (Deborah Kerr) is recruited to be the Head Nun at a converted seraglio, or "harem" house for sequestered concubines. This former house of ill repute serves as a backdrop of women being seen as unstable, or going mad, as the Nuns feel that they too are being sequestered as they try to set up a school and a church for the locals. Then again the viewer learns that not only the Nuns have a hard time trying to convert the locals, but Priests have tried as well and failed. Affairs of the heart underline the plot as one man, British Agent Dean (David Farrar) have both Sisters Clodaugh and Ruth (Kathleen Byron) wanting his affections. When Sister Ruth tries to lure Agent Dean by running away from the converted convent, in plain clothes...he rejects her affections and Sister Ruth goes running back to the Convent in a climatic fight on the bell tower with Sister Clodaugh.
In a secondary plot, a lower caste girl named Kanchi (Jean Simmons) caches the eye of General (Sabu) as he goes to the Convent to be educated by the Nuns. I believe that the role of Kanchi only solidifies what the Nuns wish they could be...free from the restrictions their faith allows and what they wish they could have that surrounds them at their time in the Himalayan Valley, desires and luxury, as well as pleasure and humilliation...the chance to be human. We see in flashbacks, the life Sister Clodaugh had before becoming a Nun...a chance at love and a chance at freedom...it is implied that she suffered a broken heart...is this the reason why she became a Nun??? Does her attraction to Mr. Dean remind of her past and things that could of been if things turned out better in Ireland?!
Whatever the reason...it's a classic film...beautifully directed, wonderfully casted and the acting is superb!!! Highly recommend it!!!
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