Black Narcissus Review

The lush exoticism of the East takes an intoxicating toll on five nuns sent to set up a convent school in the Himalayas in this 1947 masterpiece by the legendary Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Jack Cardiff’s Oscar-winning cinematography — an unsurpassed showcase for the possibilities of Technicolor — heightens the very meaning of the story, as a slash of red lipstick clashes with the bleached white of a nun’s habit to say so much about repressed desires.No amount of CGI could ever capture the dramatic splendour of the beautiful matte paintings that push a church bell — and the nuns’ emotions — right to the edge of a deep and deadly ravine.