Film of the Week: Back Narcissus, 1947

Ah, nuns. Technicolor nuns. Technicolor nuns in the Asian mountains. The very words just sing, “Easter.” Okay, maybe not. But, this rather strange English film is quite interesting, and certainly attractive. I think it’s one of the most mesmerizing color films ever made due to its dazzling palette—lush color which makes it seem more like a series of paintings than a film.

Written and directed by the English team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this 1947 picture is based on a novel of the same name by Rumer Godden and stars Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar and Flora Robson, Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons (in an early film role) and Kathleen Byron.

The film which concerns the psychological turmoil of an order of Anglican nuns who are sent to an isolated mountaintop convent in the Himalayas appears to have been shot on location, but in reality was filmed mostly at Pinewood Studios in England with a few scenes being shot in Leonardslee Gardens in West Sussex. The look of the mountains, convent and exotic jungles were achieved with clever set-pieces, large scale landscape paintings and matte paintings. Co-director Michael Powell said, “Our mountains were painted on glass. We decided to do the whole thing in the studio and that's the way we managed to maintain colour control to the very end. Sometimes in a film its theme or its colour are more important than the plot.”

And, that’s quite evident. While the plot doesn’t make a lot of sense and is rather difficult to follow, the film is so enchanting with such lavish color and beautiful imagery that you can’t look away. Even the costumes speak volumes. The nuns in their stylized medieval habits seem to almost glow in white, giving them an ethereal quality which sets them apart from the fruit-colored world around them.

There’s a certain subtext to the film which was released just months before the 1947 achievement of India’s independence from Britain. The film’s final scenes, wherein the nuns quietly leave the mountain and return to England, have been interpreted by some as symbolic of English defeat and the fading of the empire. Others, however, see it as representing the respectful vacation of the English, returning the land to its natives and to nature itself.

Portions of the film were found objectionable by the Catholic Legion of Decency. But, what didn’t they find objectionable? The scenes in question are really quite tame by today’s standards. While the script was adapted heavily, it still remains relatively faithful to its source material. The film, as did the novel, concerns the seduction of the nuns by both their exotic surroundings as well as their companion, a British agent played by David Farrar. As the tawdry wind blows through the convent, the nuns begin to experience the surfacing of long-hidden desires and behave in very un-nun-like ways. Set against this glorious backdrop, the action plays out like a Baroque altarpiece come to life.

Watch this film as you would observe a painting. Sometimes it’s best to appreciate something for its beauty instead of trying to decipher what exactly it means.