|
|
List Price: $39.95Amazon.com's Price: $29.99 You Save: $9.96 (25%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Now!
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780023567
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN: 0780023560
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 30, 2001
Running Time: 101 minutes
Sales Rank: 23707
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: 1947-12
Editorial Review:
Description:
Plagued by uncertainties and worldly desires, five Protestant missionary nuns, led by Deborah Kerr's Sister Clodagh, struggle to establish a school in the desolate Himalayas. All the elements of cinematic arts are perfectly fused in Powell and Pressburger's fascinating study of the age-old conflict between the spirit and the flesh, set against the grandeur of the snowcapped peaks of Kanchenjunga. Criterion is proud to present Black Narcissus in a new Special Edition.
Amazon.com:
Appropriately enough for a picture named for a flower, Black Narcissus exists in a color-drenched, hothouse atmosphere. The setting is a nunnery in the Himalayas, where sister Deborah Kerr has her hands full with an envious nun (the remarkable Kathleen Byron) and a sardonic Englishman (David Farrar). Director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger, the team responsible for the mid-forties masterpieces A Stairway to Heaven and The Red Shoes, decided to shoot Black Narcissus entirely in the studio, so they could create their own controlled, slightly unreal world. The choice paid off, as both art director Alfred Junge and cinematographer Jack Cardiff won Oscars for their blazing Technicolor work. The climactic sequence--a murder attempt on the cliffs of the cloister--bears special attention, as Powell 'set' the sequence to a preexisting musical track, staging it as though it were a piece of visual choreography. Adding a bit of behind-the-scenes tension to the production was the fact that Kerr was the director's ex-mistress, and Byron his current one. 'It was a situation not uncommon in show business, I was told,' he later wrote, 'but it was new to me.' --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Example of the all the best in filmmaking
The Oscar-winning 1947 story of a group of 5 nuns establishing a school/hospital mission at an ancient remote Himalayan palace . . . a former harem. They are to serve the village in the valley far below. Remarkably, this was all shot in a London studio - not the windswept mountainside that the viewer seems to be looking at.
The nuns seem to all be having serious misgivings regarding their vocation, and the pull of their former lives. There is arising sexual tension (usually masterfully ... Read More
Rating: - A stunning visual feast heavy with symbolic meaning
Above all, this is beautifully shot picture where every frame is carefully composed ... and the results are nothing short of amazing. Usually, technicolour films tend to come off as oversaturated and garish, but the colour here is carefully controlled to great effect. Every shot is mesmerizing and leaden with symbolic meaning. Ultimately, this film is about spiritual ideals versus the reality of the natural world; which, by comparison, is never so tidy.
Every scene reinforces the idea that both ... Read More
Rating: - Simmering repressed emotions as painted with colour
Powell and Pressburger in the 40's were a sure fire guarantee of cinema that was imaginative, innovative and involving - and this was one of the pinnacles of their career.
On the surface another British melodrama, this was made into much more, using the relatively new and cumbersome Technicolor process for heretofore unimagined uses. While America was using colour as a way of making musicals and location work bigger and more exciting, Powell and Pressburger were finding ways of using it as a way ... Read More
Rating:  - "Everything is exaggerated"
"Black Narcissus" was Michael Powell's ambitious 1946 work set in the Himalayas... but filmed entirely on a soundstage. It's an impressive cinematic achievement, before the days of CIG and Industrial Light&Magic. "Black Narcissus" is the story of a group of Anglican nuns in India trying to deal with each other,as well as their own desires. Their convent is housed in a former harem,"The Women's Palace",living their vow of chastity surrounded by erotic Tantric murals.
Deborah Kerr is splendid ... Read More
Rating: - pretty darned good
Yeah it's all that. When I started viewing it, I was a bit uncertain. Nuns in the Himalayas? OOO baby. But the nuns are stationed in an old brothel and let the fun begin. The locale has its effect on the ladies who start to question their faith and their purpose. Sister Ruth goes off her rails in a truly scary way. In a de rigeur red dress. The acting is excellent all around, and the cinematography is amazing. I really could not believe that it was all shot in a studio! Quite remarkable. David Farrar is new ... Read More
|
|
