Black Narcissus (Powell/Pressburger, 1947): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.15pm
This is a 35mm (nitrate) screening, introduced by Thelma Schoonmaker and part of the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger season at BFI Southbank. For other presentations see this link.
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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