Michael Powell (director) BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) Photo archive

Black Narcissus. [Los Angeles]: Universal Pictures, 1947. Set of 16 vintage original 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) black-and-white photos, one with blank corner in bottom right torn off, a few with creases and stamps on verso of Theatre Advertising Company. Overall near fine.

Classic British psychological drama film written, directed and produced jointly by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the 1939 novel Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden. It stars Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar and Flora Robson, and features Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons and Kathleen Byron.

Set during the final years of British colonial rule in India, the film depicts the growing tensions within a small convent of Anglican nuns who have been invited to establish a school and hospital in the old harem of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain in the Himalayas. The nuns have trouble adapting to the harsh climate and antagonistic population. They come to rely on the help and advice of the Raja’s British agent, a cynical Englishman whose attractiveness and panache become a source of temptation for the sisters.

The film received acclaim for its technical mastery, with the cinematographer Jack Cardiff winning an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography, and Alfred Junge winning an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. (Wikipedia)