Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 298: Sat Nov 3

Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger, 1947): Electirc Cinema, 12noon



Electric Cinema introduction:
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Electric Cinema Club, when the Electric Portobello's programming inspired the likes of Stephen Frears and Nic Roeg, and spawned a whole heap of cineastes. Join us to celebrate this landmark when we will screen a specially made documentary featuring the team from the time, including the Programmer Peter Howden. We will then welcome them on stage for a Q&A chaired by BFI – and former Electric – Programmer Geoff Andrew, before a screening of Black Narcissus, a film close to the Cinema Club’s heart. Tickets at £30 each, all proceeds go to the Electric Cinema Club's online archive project.

Chicago Reader:
A story of damaged faith and rising sexual hysteria (1946) set among a group of nuns in India who are working to convert a sultan's palace into a convent. Films on this subject are generally solemn and naive, but director Michael Powell and writer Emeric Pressburger bring wit and intelligence to it—the title, for example, refers not to some campy romantic theme but to a cheap men's cologne worn by the local princeling. The film's lush, mountainous India, full of sensual challenges and metaphorical chasms, was created entirely in the studio, with the help of matte artist Peter Ellenshaw. Powell's equally extravagant visual style transforms it into a landscape of the mind—grand and terrible in its thorough abstraction. With Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Jean Simmons, and Sabu.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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