"I will convert the nations..."
Picture me, feeling paralysed, unable to move as the lights came back on in the theatre.
The cold, bleak, all too real ending hit way too deep.
Léon Morin, Priest was my most anticipated film to watch during the Melville retrospective as I had purposefully held off on watching it for months to save watching it for the first time in theatres.
To be completely honest, I had zero idea what this film was about, from the title, I came with the preconception that it was about Léon. But really, we are guided through Melville's unconditional world through the eyes of Barny, played beautifully by Emmanuelle Riva.
We are greeted to Barny as she attempts to hide her child, half-Jewish, during the Italian occupation of France. With a few mothers, she goes to baptise her daughter at the church.
Shortly after, we learn of Barny's atheist beliefs. Trying to playfully mock the church, she ends up in a confession with Father Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), after assuming from his name that he grew up poor and would be an easier target than a highly educated higher-class priest.
But there's something about Léon that's just so different than any other depiction of a priest I've ever seen in a film. Barny becomes drawn into Léon and set along the backdrop of WWII they become friends. Barny comes up to his dorm after finishing a lent book and they bicker and debate about atheism, religion, homosexuality and the war.
Barny starts to draw sexual affection towards a woman in her office, but as she talks with Morin it seems as if her affection toward this woman depreciates.
She opens up to Morin about her homosexuality asking what to do. He is quick to denounce it stating how there are no men around due to the war and Barny simply obsessed over a woman to fill her crippling loneliness.
During one of their conversations after a doorbell rings, Léon leaves to provide shelter in the church for some, presumably Jewish, fugitives. This is such unorthodox behaviour for, let alone a man, but a priest at the time.
It feels as if Léon doesn't even view himself as a person sometimes, he's merely a vessel for God's will, but then at the same time, he can be so handsy and strangely emotional.
When one of her friends comments that Léon is very "handsome" Barny thinks to herself and realises... yeah, he is handsome. Léon is an objectively beautiful man and it made me as an audience member wonder if Barny truly converts to Christianity because she wants to or out of some way to validate herself in the eyes of Léon.
After the war is over, Barny fantasies about Léon coming into her home and making love to her. Melville clearly shows Barny begin to undress him in the dream, proving to me that Barny is infatuated by the body that is under all of those black robes.
But Léon is strictly married to God and in the eyes of her newfound God, loving Léon is a sin, just like her homosexual feelings toward her coworker.
So Barny is left in this void of emptiness and loneliness. Everything she does or chooses to love is a sin, her husband is dead and the only people she wants to love she cant love.
They'll meet again but in the next world. In this world, they're unfit for one another.
This film is so remarkably different from any of the 9 other films I've seen from Melville.
The first remarkable difference is the lack of any explicit violence (aside from a slap) in such a violent setting. While Le Silence De La Mer is also set during WWII, the lack of violence in that film makes sense because it is all set in a comforting countryside home.
The second being that this film has a female protagonist. Barny is the emotional core and centre of the story. She is an incredibly complex woman with an arc that any of Melville's other female characters simply lack. Not to mention the fact that she's bi-sexual. This spotlight on a woman's struggle feels so wonderfully new for Melville and honest. We are really able to empathise with this beautiful woman in the best possible way. I really wish if Melville lived longer he would've made another film that feels this female-centric.
The third and most central departure is that this film is missing the distinct rhythm and controlled nature that his other films possessed. As I mentioned in my review of Le Cercle Rouge "every piece of (the film) works like perfectly constructed clockwork, each part meticulously crafted from beginning to end." All of Melville's other films feel like a perfectly choreographed and constructed stageplay, in the best possible way. There's this almost theatric side to them all that makes the films stand out and feel, well... so 'Melville'. But that quality seems to be entirely missing from Léon Morin, Priest. While its setting isn't large in scope at all, quite the contrary, the film feels so uncontrolled, so devastatingly real. Melville describes his films as being first and foremost a dream, but the only sense of escapism I got from this film was the actual dream sequence. Léon Morin is a gorgeous film that feels like its own complete thing. If it didn't say it was a film by Jean-Pierre Melville at the beginning, I honest to god would never guess that it was directed by him. This film proves to me how absolutely incredible Melville truly is, not just as a filmmaker, but as a visionary and an artist. This might be his best-directed film in competition with maybe Army Of Shadows.
After the lights came on and the film ended I sunk into my seat, unable to move. The crippling realism of the ending seconds completely broke me emotionally. As I stepped into my car about to drive home, I began to sob insensibly. I can't really explain why, the film isn't really super 'sad' by any means. I just felt so broken, so defeated, so crushed.
This review is my plea for everyone to see this masterpiece. Léon Morin, Priest is but another work of art constructed by "The French Master" Melville.
Watch this piece of pure, unfiltered, rich, beautiful cinema.
Picture me, feeling paralysed, unable to move as the lights came back on in the theatre.
The cold, bleak, all too real ending hit way too deep.
Léon Morin, Priest was my most anticipated film to watch during the Melville retrospective as I had purposefully held off on watching it for months to save watching it for the first time in theatres.
To be completely honest, I had zero idea what this film was about, from the title, I came with the preconception that it was about Léon. But really, we are guided through Melville's unconditional world through the eyes of Barny, played beautifully by Emmanuelle Riva.
We are greeted to Barny as she attempts to hide her child, half-Jewish, during the Italian occupation of France. With a few mothers, she goes to baptise her daughter at the church.
Shortly after, we learn of Barny's atheist beliefs. Trying to playfully mock the church, she ends up in a confession with Father Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), after assuming from his name that he grew up poor and would be an easier target than a highly educated higher-class priest.
But there's something about Léon that's just so different than any other depiction of a priest I've ever seen in a film. Barny becomes drawn into Léon and set along the backdrop of WWII they become friends. Barny comes up to his dorm after finishing a lent book and they bicker and debate about atheism, religion, homosexuality and the war.
Barny starts to draw sexual affection towards a woman in her office, but as she talks with Morin it seems as if her affection toward this woman depreciates.
She opens up to Morin about her homosexuality asking what to do. He is quick to denounce it stating how there are no men around due to the war and Barny simply obsessed over a woman to fill her crippling loneliness.
During one of their conversations after a doorbell rings, Léon leaves to provide shelter in the church for some, presumably Jewish, fugitives. This is such unorthodox behaviour for, let alone a man, but a priest at the time.
It feels as if Léon doesn't even view himself as a person sometimes, he's merely a vessel for God's will, but then at the same time, he can be so handsy and strangely emotional.
When one of her friends comments that Léon is very "handsome" Barny thinks to herself and realises... yeah, he is handsome. Léon is an objectively beautiful man and it made me as an audience member wonder if Barny truly converts to Christianity because she wants to or out of some way to validate herself in the eyes of Léon.
After the war is over, Barny fantasies about Léon coming into her home and making love to her. Melville clearly shows Barny begin to undress him in the dream, proving to me that Barny is infatuated by the body that is under all of those black robes.
But Léon is strictly married to God and in the eyes of her newfound God, loving Léon is a sin, just like her homosexual feelings toward her coworker.
So Barny is left in this void of emptiness and loneliness. Everything she does or chooses to love is a sin, her husband is dead and the only people she wants to love she cant love.
They'll meet again but in the next world. In this world, they're unfit for one another.
This film is so remarkably different from any of the 9 other films I've seen from Melville.
The first remarkable difference is the lack of any explicit violence (aside from a slap) in such a violent setting. While Le Silence De La Mer is also set during WWII, the lack of violence in that film makes sense because it is all set in a comforting countryside home.
The second being that this film has a female protagonist. Barny is the emotional core and centre of the story. She is an incredibly complex woman with an arc that any of Melville's other female characters simply lack. Not to mention the fact that she's bi-sexual. This spotlight on a woman's struggle feels so wonderfully new for Melville and honest. We are really able to empathise with this beautiful woman in the best possible way. I really wish if Melville lived longer he would've made another film that feels this female-centric.
The third and most central departure is that this film is missing the distinct rhythm and controlled nature that his other films possessed. As I mentioned in my review of Le Cercle Rouge "every piece of (the film) works like perfectly constructed clockwork, each part meticulously crafted from beginning to end." All of Melville's other films feel like a perfectly choreographed and constructed stageplay, in the best possible way. There's this almost theatric side to them all that makes the films stand out and feel, well... so 'Melville'. But that quality seems to be entirely missing from Léon Morin, Priest. While its setting isn't large in scope at all, quite the contrary, the film feels so uncontrolled, so devastatingly real. Melville describes his films as being first and foremost a dream, but the only sense of escapism I got from this film was the actual dream sequence. Léon Morin is a gorgeous film that feels like its own complete thing. If it didn't say it was a film by Jean-Pierre Melville at the beginning, I honest to god would never guess that it was directed by him. This film proves to me how absolutely incredible Melville truly is, not just as a filmmaker, but as a visionary and an artist. This might be his best-directed film in competition with maybe Army Of Shadows.
After the lights came on and the film ended I sunk into my seat, unable to move. The crippling realism of the ending seconds completely broke me emotionally. As I stepped into my car about to drive home, I began to sob insensibly. I can't really explain why, the film isn't really super 'sad' by any means. I just felt so broken, so defeated, so crushed.
This review is my plea for everyone to see this masterpiece. Léon Morin, Priest is but another work of art constructed by "The French Master" Melville.
Watch this piece of pure, unfiltered, rich, beautiful cinema.