Black Narcissus (1947)
Black Narcissus (1947)
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Currently Black Narcissus is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: Apple TV, Criterion Channel, Tubi TV, Plex, Amazon Video, TCM, Max Amazon Channel, Max, The Roku Channel, Freevee, Shout! Factory TV
Streaming in:🇺🇸 United States
This Movie Is About.
Cast & Crew.
Deborah Kerr
Sister Clodagh
David Farrar
Mr. Dean
Flora Robson
Sister Philippa
Kathleen Byron
Sister Ruth
Sabu
The Young General
Jean Simmons
Kanchi
Jenny Laird
Sister Honey
Judith Furse
Sister Briony
Esmond Knight
The Old General
May Hallatt
Angu Ayah
Eddie Whaley Jr.
Joseph Anthony
Shaun Noble
Con
Nancy Roberts
Mother Dorothea
Ley On
Phuba
Joan Cozier
Girl in Classroom (uncredited)
Maxwell Foster
Clodagh's Father in Flashback (uncredited)
Margaret Scudamore
Clodagh's Grandmother in Flashback (uncredited)
Helen Debroy Summers
Clodagh's Mother in Flashback (uncredited)
Jack Cardiff
Director of Photography
George R. Busby
Producer
Brian Easdale
Original Music Composer
Michael Powell
Writer / Producer / Director
Emeric Pressburger
Producer / Director / Writer
Reginald Mills
Editor
Rumer Godden
Novel
Alfred Junge
Production Design
Sydney Pearson
Special Effects
Biddy Chrystal
Hairstylist
George Blackler
Makeup Artist
E. Hague
Special Effects
Jack Higgins
Special Effects
James Snow
Special Effects
Hein Heckroth
Costume Design
Stanley Lambourne
Sound Designer
Max Rosher
Still Photographer
Elliot Scott
Draughtsman
George Paternoster
Boom Operator
Adele Raymond
Casting
Ernest Gasser
Assistant Makeup Artist
June Robinson
Assistant Hairstylist
Sydney Streeter
Assistant Director
Laurie Knight
Third Assistant Director
Robert Lynn
Third Assistant Director
Pat MacDonnell
Second Assistant Director
Kenneth Rick
Second Assistant Director
Vishwanatha Nageshkar
Set Designer
Gordon K. McCallum
Sound
Media.
Details.
Release DateMay 26, 1947
StatusReleased
Running Time1h 40m
Content RatingNR
Budget$424,000
Filming LocationsPinewood Studios, United Kingdom
Genres
Wiki.
Black Narcissus is a 1947 British psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, and Flora Robson, and featuring Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons, and Kathleen Byron. The title refers to the Caron perfume Narcisse Noir.
The film is based on the 1939 novel by Rumer Godden. It revolves around the growing tensions within a small convent of Anglican sisters who are trying to establish a school and hospital in the old palace of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain above a fertile valley in the Himalayas. The palace has ancient Indian erotic paintings on its walls and is run by the agent of the Indian general who owns it, a handsome middle-aged Englishman who is a source of attraction for the sisters.
In her autobiography, A Time to Dance, a Time to Weep, Godden, who grew up in India, describes an event that became an inspiration for Black Narcissus. While exploring the Indian countryside with friends one day, they came across a gravestone, covered with brush. When they cleared it away, all that was on the stone was the name "Sister Ruth".
Black Narcissus achieved considerable acclaim for its technical mastery with the cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, winning an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography, and Alfred Junge winning an Academy Award for Best Art Direction.According to film critic David Thomson, "Black Narcissus is that rare thing, an erotic English film about the fantasies of nuns, startling whenever Kathleen Byron is involved".