Léon Morin, Priest: Life During Wartime
By July 26, 2011
To a secular eye, Jean-Pierre Melville’s sixth feature film, Léon Morin, Priest (1961), is about almost anything except religion: the deleterious effects of sexual repression Read more »
SYNOPSIS: Jean-Paul Belmondo delivers a subtly sensual performance in the hot-under-the-collar Léon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, prêtre), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The French superstar plays a devoted man of the cloth who is desired by all the women of a small village in Nazi-occupied France. He finds himself most drawn to a sexually frustrated widow—played by Emmanuelle Riva—a religious skeptic whose relationship with her confessor turns into a confrontation with both God and her own repressed desire. A triumph of mood, setting, and innuendo, Léon Morin, Priest is an irreverent pleasure from one of French cinema’s towering virtuosos.
| Léon Morin | Jean-Paul Belmondo |
| Barny | Emmanuelle Riva |
| Christine | Irène Tunc |
| Sabine | Nicole Mirel |
| Lucienne | Gisèle Grimm |
| Arlette | Monique Hennessy |
| Director | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| Producer | Georges de Beauregard and Carlo Ponti |
| Based on the novel by | Béatrix Beck |
| Adapted by | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| Cinematography | Henri Decaë |
| Editing | Jacqueline Meppiel, Nadine Marquand and Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte |
| Original music by | Marital Solal and Albert Raisner (harmonica) |
| Art direction | Daniel Guéret |
| Assistant directors | Volker Schlöndorff, Luc Andrieux and Jacqueline Parey |
By July 26, 2011
To a secular eye, Jean-Pierre Melville’s sixth feature film, Léon Morin, Priest (1961), is about almost anything except religion: the deleterious effects of sexual repression Read more »
August 02, 2011
The fact that there are no hoodlums or heists in Léon Morin, Priest doesn’t keep it from being one of the tensest, most gripping films from Jean-Pierre Melville, known mostly for his thrillers Read more »