Film Forum

France, 1961
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
With Jean-Paul Belmondo, Emmanuelle Riva
Based on the novel by Béatrix Beck
In French with English subtitles
Approx. 130 mins. 4K DCP restoration.

“Religion is the opiate of the people,” begins the confession of Communist widow Emmanuelle Riva (the late star of Resnais’ HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR), provocative just to get some fun in the drab little village where she’s been relocated during the Occupation. But when her confessor dryly replies “Pas exactement,” she begins a seemingly inexorable turn towards God — or towards her handsome confessor Père Jean-Paul Belmondo (in “an erotically charged performance” – BFI). Fed up with being “an auteur maudit known only to a handful of crazy film buffs,” Jewish atheist Melville accepted an offer of real stars and an actual budget to adapt Béatrix Beck’s autobiographical novel, a book he already considered “the most accurate picture I have read of life under the Occupation,” then had to talk an initially reluctant Belmondo — hot from BREATHLESS — into taking the title role. Melville created a kind of fresco of the Occupation — play-it-safe baptisms of Communist and Jewish children; parades of Alpine-hatted Italian Bersaglieri and marching band Nazis; arguments with pro-Pétain and anti-Semitic co-workers; a Jewish colleague getting a shave, name change, and a ticket out; platonic same-sex crushes in a man-less world — but its center is Riva’s confusing, fascinating, tantalizing encounter with God and his servant Belmondo (successfully intellectual, sincere, and ultimately enigmatic in a change-of-pace role), their mutual underplaying making even theological discussions subtly throbbing with emotional undertones. Shot by the great Henri Decaë (THE 400 BLOWS, ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS, BOB LE FLAMBEUR, LE CERCLE ROUGE).

Presented with support from the Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

Reviews

“A gripping movie, and also a great one.”
– J. Hoberman, The New York Times

“DESERVES REDISCOVERY. LÉON MORIN, PRIEST is another reason to remember and honor [Emmanuelle Riva], in addition to its merits as an intellectually and artistically stimulating film.”
– Eric Monder, Film Journal International

“EXTRAORDINARY…STRANGE, OFTEN THRILLING, ALWAYS SURPRISING... Melville’s eye for exacting detail here is expected. What is remarkable is the depth of feeling he exacts from the juxtaposition of ordinary moments with their extraordinary context. When Melville cuts to some Resistance fighters leaving the baptism and returning to the woods that shelter them, it’s as if you were watching fathers leaving for that day’s work… Belmondo brings a shock of the carnal to every encounter. The world of Léon Morin is one of profound disarray.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“Miraculous cinema, even for heretics! Melville’s extraordinary excursion into Bressonian territory… With an extreme emotional intensity, he forges links between the disparate themes of the Occupation, profane love, and spiritual quest.”
– Time Out (London)

“HYPNOTIC! BEAUTIFULLY FILMED AND ACTED! A distillation of the themes of devotion and human persistence that mark Melville’s work.”
– New York Magazine

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