Black Narcissus (1947)

A sweeping melodrama that veers into gothic horror.

Directed by: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

Cinematography by: Jack Cardiff

Country: United Kingdom

Genre: Drama

Luxurious (and Oscar-winning) in design and cinematography, but thematically one of Powell and Pressburger’s darker, more ominous stories: a group of nuns attempt to establish a convent in the Himalayas only to be driven to the brink of sanity by the elements and their own seclusion in a world foreign to them.

Adapted from the novel by Rumer Godden, the directors wrapped feverish lust inside a facade of controlled restraint, and slowly unpeel the layers over the course of the film to the pulsating core inside.

Black Narcissus predates Werner Herzog’s cinematic themes of humanity’s vain, Sisyphean efforts to gain authority over the unforgiving natural world: a motif Powell and Pressburger flourish with an injection of volatile forbidden desires, creating a swirling atmosphere crackling with electricity, warning of a coming storm that threatens to sweep the characters off the cliffs into the canyon below.

What starts off as an ashen drama builds to a nightmare climax worthy of the grandest gothic horror; the transition should be jarring but it’s pulled off seamlessly, proving again how not even 10 years into their partnership, the filmmakers had mastered their craft - and still the best was yet to come.

Distributed by: The Criterion Collection / Universal Pictures