Black Narcissus (1947 Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell)

For a long time one of my least favourite P&Ps, but its beauty, atmosphere, mood of hysteria and otherliness and customary wit get you in the end.

I love Alfred Junge's Blue Room and the whole castle; the paintings are stunning (both of the scenery and in the castle); Cardiff's photography gets better and better as the film progresses, becoming quite sensational as the mood darkens. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron are quite magnificent, ably supported by Sabu, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Esmond Knight, Nancy Roberts, Judith Furse and Jean Simmons; with special mention to May Hallatt as the 'dirty old bird' and Eddie Whaley Jr, as the boy, who both bring humour.

In an interview before her death, Kathleen says of the above sequence "I didn't need to do anything - it was all in Jack's photography".

Editor Reginald Mills is the guy who never gets any credit - it's not so much rapid cutting as cutting on sudden movements or gestures of the actors. The suitably evocative score is Brian Easdale's.