Such a frustrating disappointment

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It seemed to me what they set out to due they failed at. It also seemed that most of the characters were off their rocker. I kept reading of the beauty. What I saw were obviously painted scenery. The only thing I can come up with the a bunch of artsy snobs who do nothing but find no fault in old movies just to make the selves feel superior to those who don't like it. They must have taken a film class in college. The story is dull. The characters are unrealistic. I would say laughable but I was too bored. Turn the channel.

It is from another era. It's good, but I would not recommend, rather than for film students. Well expose the human condition and human misery. Beautiful landscapes. Exotic. Dark. The world has changed so much that it no longer makes sense this work. It's like an archaeological piece. A museum piece. It's cute, but it is for distance. Sorry for my English. It is because of Google translator and New World that refuses to come. The film starts to get interesting about 40 minutes. Good shot, good performances, quality, as they used to things. And other things I do not remember .. The mountain air fell ill nuns.

American poet A.R. Ammons once said, "There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world." Sister Clodagh (Kerr) had this much in mind when she took a Mother Superior position in a secluded former seraglio turned makeshift school and hospital in the Himalayas. She brings with her a bevy of Anglican sisters and the emotional baggage of a failed relationship back in Ireland. Looking to create a world anew under strict Anglican and Christian principles, the sisters are slowly seduced by the wild, untouched region they inhabit and the wanton attitudes of the locals including two wards: Kanchi (Simmons), and The Young General (Sabu). Aiding in the erosion of the order is Mr. Dean (Farrar) a hard- drinking British agent who takes a liking to Sister Clodagh and becomes an object of obsession to the unstable Sister Ruth (Byron).The first thing that sets Black Narcissus apart from other films is it's all-enveloping beauty. Done largely at Pinewood Studios in England, Production Designer Alfred Junge and Cinematographer Jack Cardiff created an otherworldly microcosm out of mattes and vibrant color, romanticizing a part of the world most involved have never seen. Shot by shot Black Narcissus is among the most beautiful films ever made. The exoticism of the wild breeze, the vivid flora and detailed costume design of the locals barely contain the explosiveness of the story and the eroticism that lies just beneath the surface. Yet despite the production's dreamlike detail, there's something undeniably false about it. It's almost as if directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (known collectively as The Archers) wanted to make a statement about the futility of making a world in your own image where everything is controlled by some hard to define virtue.Throughout the film, Sister Clodagh must contend with trials and tribulations that pares her reality with a romantic realism; a world she cannot comprehend and with rules that directly challenge her verisimilitude. She's scared, shes confused and her only solace is in the arms of a boorish man who seems at times to taunt as much as the easterly winds. Meanwhile Sister Ruth easily folds under the pressures of living too far from her reality and becomes a foil to Sister Clodagh's desires. Add to that Kanchi's sexuality, along with the presence of a nearby holy man, everything around Sister Clodagh erodes her faith through silent challenges that unsettle the fussy, drab routines of the order.Religious rigidity isn't the only thing at odds with the liberated emotions of the studio concocted Himalayas. Behind the beauteous production design there lies a subtle subtext. 1947, the year of Black Narcissus's release was also the year of Indian independence from colonial rule. Within that context, the film can be seen as a conflict between civilizations; one holding presumptive power over the other without truly understanding it. Much like Gandhi's revolution, the change comes not with bloody revolt but with a subtle change in consciousness; a tension that is puzzling to the British occupants yet seems unpractical to start a power struggle. This tension is further examined in The Young General's romance with Kanchi. The Young General (played by Sabu the only major character of Indian decent) uses Christmas mass as an excuse to see Kanchi and while Sister Clodagh seems aware of their budding romance, she does little to stop them. How can she when locals are being paid by the Old General (Knight) to attend their school and sisters are planting flowers instead of vegetables. The very fabric of their existence is falling apart! Concessions must be made and Generals Young and Old have all the power.Lovingly crafted with vibrant colors and complex themes, drenched in eroticism and levels of hyperbole, Black Narcissus is unlike anything you're likely to see in your lifetime. Unlike Sanders of the River (1935), The Drum (1938) or The Four Feathers (1939) whose mission statements held colonialism to be a noble enterprise, at it's most grand, Black Narcissus displaces that nobility on an almost existential level. At it's most modest it is a psychological study of many desperate people trying to exist in isolation where nothing makes sense and may lead to madness.

Its rather hard to believe this movie is produced in the 40s while the matureness and colorfulness of the cinematography is basically indistinguishable from some of the works produced in the recent decade, and the complexity and lingering influence of the story overshadows most of the contemporary commercial blasts, even the old school jazz soundtrack and elegance of stage performances add up to the spellbind capacity of the film. The most impressive scenes are definitely when Kathleen Byron quietly and composedly putting on her blood-colored lipstick, wearing a maroon low cut dress instead of virginity white nunnery uniform, the tension and detonating prowess of her performances is palpable. She is willing to abandon her religion for years to pursue secular pleasures, which is unrequited love and accompanying caustic jealous that ended up consumed her last shred of dignity and kindness and even her life. The enervation's of religion and diabolicalization of love and hatred is expressively contrasted, the courage to address the forbidden and controvertible issue in 1940 is invigorating for the contemporary generation, while the freedom and latitude is supposedly keeping widening, this kind of freshly iconoclastic question is less brought up by movies and the desensitized audience seem to be more satisfied with them. The story tells the story in a eerie context, the roof of the world surrounded by vibrant flowers and mistral blowing wind, with unsophisticated and secluded people,a living god abode in the middle of the mountain, and a rawly loved-by-all man with perfect masculinity and strange flirtatious gravitas. This all happens in a totally unfamiliar way, thus creates a sharp schism between reality.But do people living in an ordinary life ever question their religions? Or the doubt and incredulity only happens when we are not surrounded by cultured human beings and given an opportunity to be totally free and uncurdled in the nature?