Black Narcissus

Black Narcissus was adapted from Rumer Godden's 1939 novel of the same name.[8] Michael Powell was introduced to the novel by actress Mary Morris, who had appeared in The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and an early film Powell did with Emeric Pressburger, The Spy in Black (1939).[9] Godden had adapted her novel for a stage production for Lee Strasberg in the United States, but allowed Pressburger to write his own screenplay adaptation with Powell.[9]

Kathleen Byron was among the first to be cast in the film, in the role of the unstable Sister Ruth.[10] Pressburger described Byron as having a "dreamy voice and great eyes like a lynx", which he felt appropriate for the mentally disturbed character.[10] In the role of the leading Sister Superior, Sister Clodagh, Deborah Kerr was cast.[10] Pressburger chose Kerr for the role despite the reservations of Powell, who felt she was too young for the part.[10] At one point, Powell considered Greta Garbo for the part.[10] Kerr was paid £16,000 for fifty-five days of work.[11]

David Farrar was cast as Mr Dean, the virile British agent who becomes the object of Sister Ruth's obsession.[12] Farrar was paid £4,500 for forty-five days of shooting.[11] Flora Robson appears as Sister Philippa, a gardener in the convent.[11]

Of the three principal Indian roles, only the Young General was played by an ethnic Indian, Sabu; the roles of Kanchi, played by Jean Simmons,[13] and the Old General were performed by white actors in make-up.[14] Kanchi, 17, is described by 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." Godden approved of Simmons's casting, remarking that she "perfectly fulfilled my description".[15] The Indian extras were cast from workers at the docks in Rotherhithe.[16]

Before-and-after stills: the top shows the scene as shot, the bottom incorporates W. Percy Day's matte painting, creating the illusion of a deep cliff

Filming of Black Narcissus began on 16 May 1946, and was completed on 22 August.[17] The film was shot 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.[18] While Powell at the time had been known for his love of location shooting, with Black Narcissus he became fascinated with the idea of filming as much in-studio as possible.[19]

The film is known for making extensive use of matte paintings and large-scale landscape paintings (credited to W. Percy Day) to suggest the mountainous environment of the Himalayas, as well as some scale models for motion shots of the convent.[20] 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, Alfred Junge, the art director, had three main colour schemes. The sisters were always in the white habits that he designed from a medley of medieval types. These white robes of heavy material stressed the sisters' other-worldliness amid the exotic native surroundings. The chief native characters were robed in brilliant colours, particularly the generals in jewels and in rich silks. Other native characters brought into the film for "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 pre-existing musical track, staging it as though it were a piece of visual choreography. There was some personal, behind-the-scenes tension, as 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."[21]

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 is not known whether it was printed.[22]

Black Narcissus had its world premiere at the Odeon Theatre in London on 4 May 1947.[1] According to trade papers, the film was a "notable box office attraction" at British cinemas in 1947.[23][24] It premiered in the United States on 13 August 1947 in New York City at the Fulton Theatre.[25]

In France, where it released in 1949, the film sold 1,388,416 tickets. In Japan, it was the fifth top-grossing film of 1950, earning ¥60 million in theatrical rentals.[26]

In the United States, the Catholic National Legion of Decency condemned the film as "an affront to religion and religious life" for characterising it as "an escape for the abnormal, the neurotic and the frustrated".[27] The version of the film originally shown in the United States had scenes depicting flashbacks of Sister Clodagh's life before becoming a sister edited out at the behest of the Legion of Decency.[28] The 10 cuts to the film, of about 900 feet of film, were supervised by Pressburger, who commented that the cuts were "reasonable, fair and just," and that he made them to further the film's distribution, as the only bookings it had while on the "condemned" list were in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. After the cuts were made, the Legion of Decency removed the film from the list, and further bookings were possible.[29]

The Manchester Guardian described the film as possessing "good acting and skilfully built-up atmosphere" and praised the cinematography.[30] Philip Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times gave the film high praise, deeming it an "exquisite cinematic jewel", continuing: "I can't say how authentic Black Narcissus is, but the lotus land to which it carries us is uniquely unforgettable."[31] Jane Corby of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the film as a "peculiar recital of religious life" and praised the cinematography, but felt that the "mixed atmosphere of religious seclusion and romantic vagaries is very confusing".[32]

Thomas M. Pryor of The New York Times lauded the creative collaboration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the writer-director duo, for their notable artistic achievement in Black Narcissus. Pryor particularly highlighted the groundbreaking use of Technicolor in the movie, noting its exceptional realism and its ability to create a riveting dramatic impact. He further commended the film's adept employment of miniature sets and process shots to authentically evoke the ambience of the Himalayan setting. Pryor found the presentation of the film's dramatic elements to be exceptionally well-executed and praised the overall performance of the cast as commendable. Nevertheless, Pryor observed a subtle undercurrent of detachment and cynicism in the portrayal of the nuns within the narrative, acknowledging that this aspect might prove disconcerting to certain viewers.[33]

The Criterion Collection, an American home media distribution company, released Black Narcissus on laserdisc in the early 1990s, and issued it on DVD in 2002.[36] Noel Murray, writing for The A.V. Club, deemed the 2002 DVD as a "crackerjack release," noting it was a direct copy of the old laserdisc.[36]

In 2008, ITV, the corporate heir to the Rank Organisation's General Film Distributors, released a restored version of the film on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom. The Criterion Collection subsequently issued the restored version on DVD and Blu-ray on 20 July 2010.[37] Network Distributing, under license from ITV, released another Blu-ray edition in the United Kingdom in 2014.[38]