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94 This creative triumph of artifice can be seen as a fascinating cultural meditation on the end of empire. The final lines of the novel provide a poignant summary of the conflicts contained within its pages, conflicts that Powell and Junge exaggerated in the design of the film: They were all startled by a sudden clap of thunder that went roaring down the hill. ‘Dear goodness we must hurry! ’ The grooms sprang up, stamping the fire out. The Sisters rose stiffly, brushing leaves and moss from their habits.

As the camera follows Angu Ayah it surveys the palace where we see Junge ’s erotic wall painting designs, which communicate a sense of its past as the ‘House of Women’, a perspective that could not have been envisaged by Reverend Mother and Sister Clodagh since its function is, for the viewer, outside the containing structure of Mr Dean’s voiceover. This is different from the novel, in which we learn that Clodagh visited Mopu a month before her interview with Mother Superior and that she was affected by it: ‘She had not forgotten it since.

On a metaphorical level these motifs can be interpreted as attempts to control the environment, to contain its disturbing elements within habitable structures. Yet we also are constantly reminded of how the wind nevertheless blows incessantly through the palace, of its failure to protect the nuns from outside forces. The contrast with Reverend Mother’s office, with its pulsating fan and mise-en-scène of order, could not be greater. The camera remains behind the nun who BLACK NARCISSUS 38 has opened the doors until we infer that it is Ruth, whom so far we have not seen but who now has her own distinctive visual introduction, ringing the bell.