Black Narcissus (1947)

 Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's "Black Narcissus"

At the time of the release of the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's "Black Narcissus" in 1947, the United Kingdom had begun the process of decolonization in India. Although Powell and Pressburger's film doesn't specifically pertain to this retreat in the elements of the plot, its overarching themes seem to touch upon England's lack of connectivity to these regions they've colonized. On top of this, "Black Narcissus" dives into thematic elements of eroticism and our sensual and natural desires that are in direct contrast to the systems of order created to contain them.

The film centers on a group of nuns who travel to isolated mountain in the Himalayas in order to establish a school and hospital. The nuns have problems with this new environment due to its harsh climates and antagonistic population. Their reliance on a British agent named Mr. Dean begins to become problematic when their feelings of lust shakes their stringent faith. Even more so, the natural majestic elements of the landscape cause them to feeling sweeping emotions that rattles their entire belief system. 

"Black Narcissus" is often described as one of the first 'erotic' films. Much of the film involves nuns having compulsive urges aimed towards Mr. Dean. The 'palace' they've been put in to build their school and hospital was a former pleasure house that has murals of naked women painted all over it. The directors of the film even filled the film with innuendo imagery. The sexual urges that emanate from the film point to a larger theme involving our natural urges as humans and how this directly contradicts the rigid and oppressive institutions we create to suppress these natural urges. In that way, these themes remind me of a Luis Bunuel film, as many of them involve these very themes. 

On top of these erotic themes, there is also the element of British colonialism at play. The film was being made at the tail end of Britain's rule over India. One could view the film through this lens and see it as a recognition of the complete disconnect between the stringent rule of rigidity by the British empire and the natural world that completely contradicts these edicts. As described by film critic Dave Kehr, the final images of the nun leaving the landscape as a "last farewell to their fading empire." Perhaps not a shameful defeat, says Kehr, but rather a "respectful, rational retreat from something that England never owned nor understood." 

Overall, I very much enjoyed "Black Narcissus" and felt the film's themes align with more a post-war sentiment. By this I mean these themes involving a disconnect between the established order of things and its complete disconnect from any real or spiritual naturalism prevalent in modern life. It focuses on eroticism, colonial disconnect, and psychological unravelling are all themes that lean more towards a post-war film landscape than a pre-war one. For that, I find "Black Narcissus," along with its mastery over the technicolor visual imagery (breathtaking!) make for a fantastic film ushering in a new film world in a post-war cinema.