--- title: "Black Narcissus: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/black-narcissus/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/black-narcissus" critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 13 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Black Narcissus (1947): what the critics said Critics' score 81 from 13 reviews: 11 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics praise Black Narcissus for making colour, landscape and studio artifice express the desires its characters cannot acknowledge. Jack Cardiff’s Technicolor cinematography, the matte paintings and the sets attract consistent admiration: the reviews see them as essential to the psychological drama, rather than decoration. Praise also clusters around Kathleen Byron’s performance, with Deborah Kerr drawing strong notices, while several critics value the film’s frank treatment of female desire and its attention to cultural tensions. The disagreement concerns how much of this feverish melodrama the story can sustain. Variety admires the production and colour photography but finds lapses in the storytelling; the Los Angeles Times finds the sexual hysteria and atmosphere excessive. The spread is therefore wide, though the dissent is isolated: most critics regard the heightened emotion and visual intensity as the means by which Powell and Pressburger make repression visible. ## Empire — William Thomas Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2014. The critic calls the film a 1947 masterpiece by Powell and Pressburger. They single out Jack Cardiff’s Oscar-winning Technicolor cinematography and the dramatic matte paintings for praise, noting how the visuals heighten the story of repressed desires. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/black-narcissus-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Joseph Jon Lanthier Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 December 2012. The critic praises Powell and Pressburger's film as a visually stunning and psychologically complex work, highlighting its erotic undertones, masterful Technicolor cinematography by Jack Cardiff, and empathetic direction that elevates the story of repressed nuns in the Himalayas into a metaphor for artistic vision. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/black-narcissus/) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 April 2002. The critic describes the 1947 Powell-Pressburger film as a rapturous, near-indescribable work of cinematic art that blends spiritual melodrama with abstract emotional resonance through its story of nuns challenged by Himalayan elements and mysticism. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/black-narcissus-dvd-1798197271) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 5 August 2005. The critic urges readers to see this 1947 classic from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger on its digitally restored big-screen re-release, calling it an all-time favourite that delivers a sugar-rush of pleasure. They single out the extraordinary melodrama of repressed love and Englishness unravelling in the Himalayas, along with the superb studio sets, convincing backdrops and the magnificent, terrifying performance of Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/aug/05/3) ## The New Yorker — Michael Sragow Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 9 December 2013. This lush 1947 adaptation keeps the screen aglow and the mind agog as a landmark of design and color about faith and temptation. Powell and Pressburger created a rapturous landscape without leaving England. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/black-narcissus) ## The New York Times Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 August 1947. The film is a work of rare pictorial beauty with stunning Technicolor settings and a strong cast led by Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron. It is an artistic accomplishment of no small proportions despite potentially disturbing elements. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1947/08/14/archives/black-narcissus-british-study-of-missionary-nuns-starring-deborah.html) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 25 May 2017. The critic highlights the film's radical exploration of female sexual desire and repression alongside its treatment of exoticism and the 'other' in 1940s British cinema. It singles out the landscape and Technicolor imagery as key to revealing characters' inner worlds and notes the film's nuanced awareness of colonial folly, which helps it age well. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/black-narcissus-exoticism-eroticism-powell-pressburger) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1946. The lavish production resolves into the story of two sex-starved women and a man, with no happy ending except perhaps spiritually. Production values and color photography atone for minor lapses in the story. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1946/film/reviews/black-narcissus-1200415137/) ## Los Angeles Times Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 2 May 2002. The film verges on the outrageous in its evocation of incipient corruption and sexual hysteria, with lush color and an atmosphere that threatens to undermine the nuns' resolve. A cult favorite, but a bit much. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-02-wk-screen2-story.html) ## The Playlist Rating A+. 19 March 2013. The piece calls Black Narcissus a tonal shift for the duo into dark, sensual, and highly experimental territory with unforgettable photography and a feverish atmosphere of suppressed hysteria and eroticism. It is recommended as an essential starting point for the filmmakers' work. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/the-films-of-powell-pressburger-a-retrospective-20130319/4/) ## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 21 May 2012. The review highlights the film's haunting sense of place through masterful cinematography and matte work, its beauty, and rare confrontation of female desire in its era. It notes the intense eroticism conveyed through color, music, and glances rather than explicit action, with strong performances from Kerr and Farrar. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/black-narcissus-1947-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) ## /Film — Joshua Meyer Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 4 May 2022. The critic praises the film's stunning Technicolor visuals, matte paintings, and psychological depth as a sophisticated psychodrama exploring desire, repression, and cultural tensions. The Oscar-winning cinematography and performances, especially Kathleen Byron's, are highlighted as enduring strengths of this Powell and Pressburger classic. [Read the review](https://www.slashfilm.com/852400/at-75-black-narcissus-is-still-a-work-of-stunning-visuals-and-rich-psychological-depth/) ## Collider — Andrew Taylor Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 12 August 2022. The critic praises the film's use of Technicolor to convey repressed desire and erotic tension among the nuns in a remote Himalayan setting. They single out the cinematography by Jack Cardiff and the symbolic use of red as particularly effective. [Read the review](https://collider.com/black-narcissus-1947-cultivates-erotic-technicolor/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/black-narcissus.md