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Nick James Presented BLACK NARCISSUS as Part of the Powell & Pressburger Program at the 22nd FICM

Daniel Hernández

As part of the 22nd edition of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), the film Black Narcissus (1947) by director Emeric Pressburger was screened as part of the Powell & Pressburger program. The screening was presented by Daniela Michel, general director of FICM, and film critic and editor of Sight and Sound magazine, Nick James.

The film tells the story of a group of nuns who open a convent in the foothills of the Himalayas, where their values will be questioned by the new environment that surrounds them.

As a fun fact, Nick poitned out that this film was censored and adapted by the Catholic Decency League in the United States at the time. He also added that the film becomes racist and colonialist at certain moments; one of the actresses even darkened her skin to play her character, something that would be unthinkable today.

Nevertheless, he invited viewers to put all that aside and enjoy the film as a melodrama. Finally, the film critic highlighted the good work of the film's iconicity showing the landscapes in which the story is told: “One of the things I like most about the film is that they managed to make the Himalayan mountains look dizzying and terrifying with models and background paintings,” he concluded.