They Had a Good War: Powell and Pressburger s Women Characters theartsdesk.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theartsdesk.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Stunning: the original Black Narcissus
Powell and Pressburger’s 1947 film of Black Narcissus took decades to be fully appreciated for its storytelling, but as a deliriously lush visual achievement it was admired straightaway. Despite censorship battles in America about its quivering erotic subtext, and even the reluctance of the book’s author, Rumer Godden, to give her seal of approval, it won two Oscars – for Jack Cardiff’s groundbreaking Technicolor cinematography and Alfred Junge’s ingenious art direction.
The film transports us, in its heightened, fever-dream way, to the abandoned palace of Mopu, site of a former harem high in the Himalayas, where the Anglican mission led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) will try to found their convent, and will stumble, thanks to the eerie character of the place and the very air.