Synopsis
A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed in an odd old palace. They work to establish a school and a hospital, but slowly their focus shifts. Sister Ruth falls for a government worker, Mr. Dean, and begins to question her vow of celibacy. As Sister Ruth obsesses over Mr. Dean, Sister Clodagh becomes immersed in her own memories of love.
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Cast
- Deborah KerrSister Clodagh
- David FarrarMr. Dean
- Flora RobsonSister Philippa
- Kathleen ByronSister Ruth
- SabuThe Young General
- Jean SimmonsKanchi
- Jenny LairdSister Honey
- Judith FurseSister Briony
- Esmond KnightThe Old General
- May HallattAngu Ayah
- 100
The A.V. Club
It remains a rapturous, near-indescribable work of cinematic art, spun from a simple story about nuns who travel to the Himalayas to start a school and a hospital, only to have mountain winds and native mysticism weaken their confidence and their faith. - 100
The Guardian
The co-directors created from Rumer Godden's novel an extraordinary melodrama of repressed love and Forsterian Englishness - or rather Irishness - coming unglued in the vertiginous landscape of South Asia. - 100
Time Out
For Powell and Pressburger, the personal and the political—much like their distinctive mix of high and low artistry—weren’t separate bedfellows: Even a marvelously entertaining tale of repressed abbesses on the edge could explore, with enduring resonance and profundity, an empire losing its grip. - 100
Empire
Sexual tension hangs in the air as the wind blows and native drums beat, but it's on a visual level that the film excels. - 100
Slant Magazine
Black Narcissus impishly keeps watch over the Archers’ canon with a sunken, rabidly prismatic eye. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
An odd, unsettling film which suggests the dangers of both emotional restraint and unchecked passion, Black Narcissus is also one of the most visually beautiful films ever made in color. - 100
BBC
Black Narcissus has an erotic charge that's to this day been so often lacking in British cinema. - 90
The New Yorker
This is a landmark of Hollywood-on-Thames trompe-l’oeil.