"Leon Morin, Priest" owes a bit of a debt to Bresson's earlier "Diary Of A Country Priest", but it lacks that film's high drama of a dying young priest hated by his small-minded parish of coarse peasants. Here we see sexual tension between a priest and a female so in love w/ him that she rejoins the Catholic church. This makes no sense as the film opens w/ this woman "Barny's" voice-over confession of love for a female coworker, a character who fails to burden Leon with a conflict of interest as she disappears after one brief early appearance. Likewise, all other supporting characters appear only occasionally in the two -hour saga, the bulk of the film devoted to theological discussions between Leon and Barny. Though not w/o interest, these discussions take up too much of the film./ Miscast Belmondo tries hard, as does Riva, but the script is a real dog. Oh, it looks great, as do all of Melville films, but w/ the exception of "Bob THe Gambler", the writing in his films is half-ass, and here he is no Bresson or Georges Bernanos.
Review of Léon Morin, Priest
