Black Narcissus - 1947 - 3½ Stars

Actors:  Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson
Director:  Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Location shoots have become more and more prevalent in the film world.  While ultimately that has helped films appear more 'real', it still calls into question their versimilitude - sure, you might be in India or Brazil or wherever, or you might make your movie look like the 1860s Old West, but everyone looks like they've just showered and their teeth are remarkably clean.  Without the imperfections of the set to focus on, other imperfections come into focus.  Black Narcissus is an incredible accomplishment of set design - while purportedly set at a remote Indian mountain castle, at the end (spoiler alert) it says it was shot at a London studio. While it never doesn't feel like a film set, the directors use every trick - light, camera, sound, etc. - to make this set feel lived in.  I imagine the effect is more real than if weaker directors had found an actual mountain castle to shoot at.

I'm pretty sure Black Narcissus is faithfully adapted from a book, and as such it lacks the narrative drive of more recent fare.  It's a movie where things unfold - while the conflicts that come to the fore by the end are being built, it's a gentle building.  The film can at times feel weightless and unimportant as a result, but I don't think it's either thing.