"There's something in the atmosphere that makes everything seem exaggerated."

Watching Black Narcissus, staring deeply into its luminously filtered, Oscar-winning Technicolor palette, I get the sense of filmmakers (and to some extent) an audience just bursting to get something out that recent history and the circumstances of their times had all but directly forbade. The film is full of allusions, meaningful gazes, innuendos and subliminal suggestions that build and build over the course of an hour and a half, finally…

"Scarce a night went by without my falling asleep with the image of her pretty face before my eyes."

At the risk of giving short shrift to a film that's probably worthy of closer reflection and more deeply considered analysis, I'm going to make quick work of this entry on David Lean's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. No disrespect intended, it's just one of those films that doesn't leave me with a whole lot to say. I've seen this…