Léon Morin, Priest [Léon Morin, prêtre] ****½ (1961, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Emmanuelle Riva, Irène Tunc) – Classic Movie Review 3798

In the Occupied French provincial town of Saint Bernard during World War Two, a young woman, Barny Sangredin (Emmanuelle Riva), a communist-supporting widow with a little daughter Christine (Irène Tunc), falls in love with a priest, Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo).

The atheist Barny decides to baptise her half-Jewish daughter to protect her from the Germans and chooses Morin, discussing religion. Barny converts to Catholicism and starts to feel an unrequited desire for him.

Masterly director Jean-Pierre Melville explores this moral and spiritual dilemma in a series of stimulating discussions embracing themes of psychology, spirituality and politics in his 1961 masterwork.

Based on the novel by Béatrix Beck (adaptated by Melville), Léon Morin is a long but engrossing top-quality art film, distinguished with subtle writing and handling and delicate performances. An unexpectedly cast Belmondo gives one of his finest displays of acting against type and Riva is also particularly distinguished. It is beautifully shot in black and white by cinematographer Henri Decaë.

Volker Schlöndorff was assistant director.

It originally ran 130 minutes but the 2003 re-release is 115 minutes.

Melville’s 13 films are: Le Silence de la mer, Les enfants terribles, Quand tu liras cette lettre…, Bob le flambeur, Two Men in Manhattan, Léon Morin, Priest, Le Doulos, Magnet of Doom, Le deuxième souffle, Le Samouraï, The Army of Shadows, Le Cercle Rouge and Un flic.

http://derekwinnert.com/un-flic-dirty-money-1972-alain-delon-catherine-deneuve-richard-crenna/

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3798

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