MUBI 2024 Retrospective is here. See our year.
Black Narcissus
8.3
/10
3,885 Ratings

Synopsis

A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. They try to establish a school and hospital in the old palace of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain. But extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes let tensions grow.

Our take

Powell & Pressburger’s opulent jewel box of colors, sets and costumes is also a hotbed of sexual and racial tensions. Part prestige production, part sordid dramatic pressure cooker, the good and the tawdry live side by side in the studio-bound exoticism whose cinematic beauty has never been matched.