Rent Black Narcissus Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental

Rent Black Narcissus (1947)

3.9 of 5 from 203 ratings
1h 41min
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) leads a group of Anglican nuns to a remote Himalayan range of mountains, there to set up a mission in an abandoned harem. This is her first position of authority and she finds both her physical and her spiritual limits being taxed as she has to maintain order and discipline in a claustrophobically hostile environment. Slowly but surely, however, the privations and hardship they must endure, the extremes of climate and the peculiar amorality of the local natives all combine to slowly corrupt the women's faith, pushing them further into jealousy, anger and madness...
Actors:
, , , , , , , , , , Eddie Whaley Jr., , , , Joan Cozier, , , Helen de Broy
Directors:
,
Producers:
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Writers:
Rumer Godden, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Others:
Jack Cardiff, Alfred Junge
Studio:
Network UK
Genres:
Classics, Drama
Collections:
A Brief History of Films About Nuns, Award Winners, BAFTA Nominations Competition 2024, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Kenneth Branagh, Getting to Know: Vanessa Redgrave, The Biggest Oscar Snubs: Part 1, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Martin Scorsese, The Instant Expert's Guide to Powell and Pressburger, Top 10 British Actresses of the 1940s, Top 100 BFI Films, Top Films
Awards:

1948 Oscar Best Cinematography Color

1948 Oscar Best Art Direction Color

BBFC:
Release Date:
26/09/2005
Run Time:
101 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
Subtitles:
None
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • 'Painting with light' Jack Cardiff documentary
  • Commentary with Michael Powell and Martin Scorsese
  • 'A profile of Black Narcissus' documentary
  • Original trailer
  • Stills gallery
BBFC:
Release Date:
04/08/2014
Run Time:
101 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 1.0, English LPCM Mono
Subtitles:
English
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.37:1
Colour:
Technicolor
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Audio Commentary with Michael Powell and Martin Scorsese
  • Original theatrical trailer (HD)
  • Painting with Light: A Documentary on Jack Cardiff
  • A Profile of Black Narcissus Featurette
  • Extensive Image Galleries (HD)
  • Original Promotional Material PDF's

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Reviews (3) of Black Narcissus

Psychological Drama & A Masterpiece - Black Narcissus review by GI

Spoiler Alert
08/10/2021

An iconic British film, very risqué for its time, and one that still shines today as a high watermark of risk-taking cinema. It has a rich, striking and vivid colour palette and use of sound to create an aura of wonder mixed with suspense and dread. This is a film with a powerful, inherent style and there's a certain majesty to it. Deborah Kerr plays Catholic nun, Sister Clodagh, who is promoted and assigned to set up a mission on a remote Himalayan mountainside in a former palace once used as a harem. She struggles to hold discipline in the hostile environment which seems to affect all of the nuns especially Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron). The presence of Mr Dean (David Farrar), a cynical English agent for the palace's owner, begins to bring out old passions in Clodagh and Ruth who begins to feel jealousy and rage as a consequence. This is a story about corruption of faith and morality, a film about passion and lust with a hint of thriller about it, a psychological drama that has become very influential. It's a sumptuous masterpiece of cinema and one of the finest British films ever made. It's definitely one of those films everyone should see.

2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.

Nuns on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Black Narcissus review by Count Otto Black

Spoiler Alert
13/05/2017

One of several genuine classics from the directing and producing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the most enduring and successful partnership of its kind prior to Joel & Ethan Coen, this extraordinarily beautiful film is of course a bit dated, as 70-year-old movies tend to be. Modern viewers may wince at the number of white actors in brownface playing Nepalese characters, some of whom are portrayed in a patronizing way that's meant to be funny, and although Sabu is in it because he's the biggest star they could find who was genuinely Indian, they might have been better off with a browned-up white actor who could act. Certain things can only be hinted at, in particular whether Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) has more than a theoretical knowledge of what her vow of chastity prevents her from even thinking of doing. And inevitably it's a bit slow.

But it has a great deal to recommend it. In particular, although the nuns are so out of place in their new home surrounded by cheerful highly-sexed pagans that you almost expect the locals to start building a wicker man, at no point is it ever implied that Christianity is superior to what the natives get up to. Indeed, the awkward presence a holy man in a permanent trance in their back garden reminds both the nuns and the audience that when they really want to, these sinful unbelievers can renounce the pleasures of the flesh far more successfully than the increasingly frazzled sisters have a hope of doing.

Kathleen Byron stands out as the nun who, right from the start, is half-crazy and getting crazier by the minute; the loopiest nun other than Glenda Jackson in Ken Russell's "The Devils" was obviously based on her performance here. And perhaps because she never has to speak, Jean Simmons is very convincing as a 17-year-old native girl so uninhibitedly sexy that at one point she near-as-dammit does Britt Ekland's "Wicker Man" dance. This is a situation that can't possibly end well, and inevitably it doesn't. Michael Powell loved to present his audiences with interestingly twisted characters they weren't expecting, such as the angel in "A Matter of Life and Death" who was nowhere near as honest as you'd expect an angel to be, and of course the serial-killing pervert in "Peeping Tom" who was actually a rather nice man gone horribly wrong through no fault of his own. Here he gives us a movie in which the focus throughout is on pure and saintly women who devote their lives to God, not one of whom is either pure or saintly, though some fake it better than others. Nobody else in the film has these qualities either, but they care very little or not at all, and in the end, the characters who finish up happiest are the ones who simply did what came naturally. Here endeth the lesson. Amen.

Unexpected bonus: a commentary track by Michael Powell and, of all people, Martin Scorcese!

1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.

Himalayan Melodrama (spoiler). - Black Narcissus review by Steve

Spoiler Alert
15/04/2023

Spectacular religious drama which impresses through its striking use of colour and light more profoundly than the slim plot. The film presents a rich atmosphere, and a question: an order of Catholic nuns establishes a convent in the Himalayas, but can they impose themselves on the alien environment, or will it destroy them first?

They move into a palace which was once  a harem, and its mysterious ambience begins to undermine the sisters' faith and expose their suppressed appetites. And slowly, the horror is awakened. The misadventure concludes with a breathtaking struggle between the Sister Superior and Sister Ruth over the convent's mountain precipice.

Kerr is the nominal star as the Sister Superior, and she's fine. But Kathleen Byron is extraordinary as the nymphomaniacal Sister Ruth. She fits the role like a lightbulb screwed into a socket. She burns. David Farrar is also heady stuff as the brawny, saturnine facilitator who provokes Sister Ruth; a difficult role that he gets just right.

The stars are offscreen too: Jack Cardiff won an Oscar for his sumptuous Technicolor images; Alfred Junge received another for the vast Himalayas painted into the studio, and the exotic set decoration. The film is a visual knockout, which combines with the haunting, epic score to create a unique, unforgettable masterpiece.

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

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