"Black Narcissus is that rare thing, an erotic English film about the fantasies of nuns" (David Thomson). The extraordinary palette of colors in the boldly stylized and sensual Black Narcissus is even more stunning in this original 35mm Technicolor print. Based on Rumer Godden's novel, it is set in the Himalayas, where five nuns-Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, and Jean Simmons among them-attempt to maintain a hospital and school. Allowing Michael Powell the full play of his tendency toward rational exoticism, the film is a psychologically acute, powerful study of the conflict between Christianity and the forces of nature. As the nuns struggle with the rigors of climate and the suspicions of the native people, gradually the physical and spiritual aspects of their surroundings begin to effect them, and they find themselves doing battle with the forces of mysticism, madness, and sexual frustration.