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 Léon Morin, Priest More at IMDbPro »Léon Morin, prêtre (original title)

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16 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Help me Father, Hold me Father, 7 September 2008
Author: MacAindrais from Canada

Jean Pierre Melville made many great films in his career - Bob La Flambeur, Le Cercle Rouge, L'armee des Ombres, Le Samourai... etc. Melville was widely revered for putting the french back into film noir. His love of American crime drama was the dramatic basis for his films, while the work of the great European auteurs, such as Bresson, formed the artistic direction. His 1961 Leon Morin, Pretre, is then something of an exception. If films like Le Cercle Rouge or Le Doulous were a combination of American and European style, Leon Morin is all European.

Set in a town occupied at first by Italians, then Germans during WWII, Barny (Emanuelle Riva) is a widowed mother and communist. One day she walks into a church looking to belittle a priest. She chooses Father Leon Morin (Belmondo), because his name sounds less bourgeois. She goes into the confessional and begins her attack. The response by the young priest however takes her by surprise. He has wise and rational responses to her every claim. The two begin conversing regularly, the priest giving her books to read about religion and faith. The young priests rationality appeals to Barny, and she eventually undergoes a conversion, not because she wants to, but because she feels she has no other choice.

While the two converse in dogmatic banter, that is not only enlightening but interesting and entertaining, life in an occupied town goes on. Barny works at the local school in the office. Her daughter of a now dead Jew is cared for by farmers outside of town, where German soldiers train in the field. The young girl is befriended by a German who cares for her and gives her gifts. A co-worker collaborates with the Germans, but yet remains a friend to Barny. Another coworker Barny claims to be in love with, although it becomes apparent that she is in love with Father Morin, even before a friend points out that he is handsome and she claims that this was the first time she's noticed. The film plays out conversationally, with the plot revolving around ideas and emotion rather than events. It's a smart and thoughtful film, not so much concerned about where its going, just how its getting there. While the film is obviously one of faith, it is not one of traditional dogma. The young priest is so forgiving, so empathetic, that he asserts that of course one does not need to be Catholic to be saved, so long as they live by the laws of the wider church - kindness, generosity, humanity. He exists for the sake of others. During the occupation he houses anyone who needs a place to sleep, without asking questions, even names.

Characteristic of Melville, he uses interesting editing techniques and cinematography. Consider the first encounter between Barny and Morin: at times the camera looks straight on, making it appear as if they're speaking face to face, then cuts to side angle shots which show the caging of the confessional to obscure the faces. The point? I'm not totally sure, but nevertheless the effect is intriguing.

Equally compelling as Melville's direction is the performance of Belmondo. Known for his crime roles, most iconically in Godard's Breathless, he gives here a totally different kind of performance. For my money, its also one of his best. He's a bit of an unexpected choice, but he's the right choice, and he inhabits this role like its an old pair of pants.

Leon Morin, Pretre, is a surprising film. Surprising in its creation by Melville, in its acting by Belmondo, in its portrayal of life in an occupied town, and in its sheer intelligence and humility. It's also a wonderful and heartfelt film.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Barny, the war, and a certain priest, 17 March 2010
9/10
Author: Bob Taylor (bob998@sympatico.ca) from Canada

My thoughts about this film don't seem to follow any precise structural pattern. I will just note the things that struck me and leave it at that. This movie affected me as no other story set in an occupied country ever has. It has a dreamlike pace and texture.

Barny sees young Italian soldiers appearing in her town, their hats have plumes--are they with a circus?... She forms a passionate friendship with Sabine, her boss: there will be a scene in which Sabine's breasts are pressed against Barny's neck and shoulders... later we find that Sabine's brother has been deported to a concentration camp... Barny and two other women have their children (who are half-Jewish) baptised. They figure that the church will legitimize their kids in the eyes of the enemy... Barny and Léon start to debate the meaning of faith. Léon makes it clear to her that he is not available, but her yearnings know no bounds. Reading Papini as a substitute for sex... Barny is involved with the Resistance, will hide Jews if required to, but her emotional life must take precedence over these activities.

There is much more, but I will just say that Riva and Belmondo are superb. After seeing her in Hiroshima, mon amour--in which she played well, but not memorably so--I was startled with her accomplished acting here. Belmondo is tough and moving; Léon is no Don Camillo.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Forbidden Territory, 10 February 2010
9/10
Author: druid333-2 from United States

For years now,the over all theme of religion in cinema has managed to touch more than it's share of raw nerves,both in the U.S.A.,as well as Europe (does anyone remember the brou-ha-ha that was raised over Jean Luc Goddard's 'Hail Mary',back in the mid 1980's,or 'The Last Temptation Of Christ',in 1988,or even 'The Life Of Brian'in 1979?). Long before all of that,there was a film that I'm sure raised some folk's eyebrows in 1961. That film was 'Leon Morin,Priest'. The story concerns a newly widowed young woman known as Barny,played by Emmanuel Riva,who is a self avowed atheist,who is seeking advice from a local priest,named Leon Morin,played by (then)France's matinée idol,Jean Paul Belmando ('Breathless',and way too many to mention here). The time is world war 2,and the small village Barny lives in is being invaded by Germans,Italians & later,American soldiers. What starts out as a series of conversations on spiritual matters,turns to unrequited love,which turns more serious as the story unfolds. Jean Pierre Melville (who was generally more known for his film noir crime epics, such as 'Le Cercle Rouge','Le Samourai','Army Of Shadows',etc.)directs & writes the story & screenplay,based on the novel by Beatrix Beck, in a film that tests one woman's temptation for the heart of another man. The rest of the cast (unknown by yours truly)turn in fine performances. The crisp,black & white cinematography by Henri Decae makes real good use of light & shadow (especially if the print quality is good to excellent),and the use of distance between the two characters,which eventually merge closer as the story goes on. Not exactly top shelf Melville,but none the less,still worth a look. Most European prints of this film originally ran 130 minutes,but unfortunately,the North American distributed print clocks in at 117 minutes (including the newly printed re-issue edition). Spoken mostly in French,with a wee bit of German,with English subtitles. Not rated by the MPAA,this film contains some minor adult content,and a rude word,or two.

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7 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Verbose and Theatrical Film with Magnificent Performances and Awesome Cinematography, 18 August 2010
6/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In World War II, the widow Barny (Emmanuelle Riva) sees the Italian soldiers arriving in the occupied Saint Bernard while walking to her job. Barny lives with her daughter and works correcting tests and feels a great sexual attraction for her boss Sabine (Nicole Mirel). When the Germans arrive in the town, Barny sends her half-Jewish daughter to live in a farm in the countryside and finds that Sabine's brother has been arrested and sent to a concentration camp. The atheist Barny decides to baptize her daughter to protect her and chooses the priest Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to discuss with him themes related to religion and Catholicism and Léon lends books to her. Barny converts to the Catholicism and becomes closer to Léon, feeling an unrequited desire for him.

"Léon Morin, Prêtre" is a verbose and theatrical film with magnificent performances of Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Paul Belmondo and awesome cinematography. There is a great sexual tension between Barny and Sabine in the beginning and then between Barny and Léon Morin but the plot gives the sensation of going to nowhere, presenting a philosophical discussion about religion and Catholicism. The subtitles in the DVD released by the Brazilian distributor Lume Filmes do not have a perfect synchronization with the speech and sometimes it is tiresome and necessary to rewind the movie to finish reading the dialog. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Léon Morin, o Padre" ("Léon Morin, the Priest")

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14 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Good actors' performance, if a little didactic !, 12 September 2004
Author: Nicholas Rhodes from Ile-de-France / Paris Region, France

I discovered this one recently in my local market on a double DVD with a film called "Les Grandes Gueules". It was interesting to see Belmondo in the rôle of a priest and I thought his dialogue and ideas were very convincing indeed ! Emanuelle Riva, I know less but she put in a good performance too. The outcome, nevertheless, is predictable and, as is often the case in French films unfortunately, ends on a pessimistic note ! Although the film is in black and white and from 1961, picture and sound quality are reasonably good. I was most pleased to see Belmondo in this rôle which changes somewhat from stuntman and the usual commissaires de police ! I am moderately religious so was interested in the theme and ideas of the film. That said, on the other hand, to someone who is anti-religion, heathen or atheist, the film might indeed appear uninteresting and boring !

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Leon Morin, Priest, 4 January 2012
7/10
Author: Martin Teller from Portland OR

An atheist/communist widow in occupied France strikes up a relationship with a progressive priest, getting both more than she bargained for and not enough to satisfy her. Melville brings a lot of interesting touches to this story, especially in his editing techniques. The film flows casually, and yet few scenes last longer than about a minute and a half. There's very little narrative filler, cutting right to the heart of their theological discussions and Emmanuelle Riva's internal struggles. It's an unusual movie with a lot going for it, including some engaging dialogues. But I had difficulty connecting with the characters. Barny is too malleable... perhaps it's the time compression, but she seems to come to certain major decisions/revelations far too easily. And while Belmondo is surprisingly not too distracting as a priest, Morin is too idealized. Maybe Barny's feelings wouldn't be so strong if we were to see his flaws, but he always seems to have the exact right thing to do or say. I suppose the larger issue could be that I don't care much for religious subject matter, but this hasn't stopped me from loving other films on the topic. Nonetheless, I'm glad I watched this.

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Church Chat With Substance, 17 April 2012
8/10
Author: PsychoDingo from United States

For someone seeking a movie that approaches faith, spirituality, and doubt in an intelligent, respectful manner, without pushing any particular agenda, Jean-Pierre Melville's Léon Morin, Priest may well be an excellent choice. It is a thinking film that does not tell anyone what to think, a wry film that does not take its subject lightly, and a contentious film that does not devolve into belligerence.

Perhaps you are weary of watching incendiary exposés in which smug non-believers do their best to make fools of people who are devout but not particularly articulate, quick witted, or well educated. It could be that you are interested in religious discussions that offer more than joking, mocking, and self-righteous phonies trying to out-Jesus one another in the name of social status.

Maybe you find no appeal in films that feature religion as little more than a means of identifying who to blow up, or perchance you have had enough of seeing reasonable questions about religious dogma summarily cast aside as blasphemy by a bunch of mindless sheep* that would not know their savior from a hole in the ground.

These are all cases that bode well for Léon Morin, Priest being a good movie to watch, because it is nothing like Religulous, Bruce Almighty, or Saved!

Instead, Léon Morin, Priest is a tale with a lot of smart dialogue between a young priest and an avowed atheist, several scenes depicting the occupation of France during World War II, some appropriate humor to keep things from getting too heavy, and a few romantic elements that won't even make grandma blush. Well…OK, she might blush once or twice, but that is about it, and really, it's good for her.

* As it turns out, Melville was fresh out of mindless sheep when he made this film. Speculation remains unconfirmed as to whether or not this is due to his alleged reliance upon the virtually unknown Monty Python Sheep Shoppe, which, despite claims to the contrary, appears not to stock any variety of sheep.

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Better that France die than live in mortal sin., 9 September 2011
Author: Ben Larson from Leesburg, FL

Director Jean-Pierre Melville, a French independent, had two great films in the 50s, but is best known for Le Samouraï, Le Cercle Rouge, and Le Doulos. I particularly liked his Army of Shadows.

Le Doulos also stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, who plays a priest out of type in this film set during the German occupation of France. Those expecting more of Melville's film noir, will be disappointed.

The film is mostly a series of theological discussions with Emmanuelle Riva (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Three Colors: Blue), whom he turns from her communist, atheist ways.

It was an interesting film from the beginning. Father Morin was a most interesting Priest, and one constantly wonders what will happen. After all, you never see him teaching men. It is always young women, and he has no hesitation in taking them into his room and closing the door. He is free with his hand, touching them often. Where will this lead?

A very good film, and ranks among Melville's best.

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25 out of 50 people found the following review useful:
Melville's least accessible work., 3 October 2003
Author: dbdumonteil

I generally do not go much for Melvilles's works:a lot of them deal with manly friendship among hoodlums ;they were influenced by the American film noir genre ,as for instance Robert Wise's "odds against tomorrow" but they do not equal them.There are sometimes gigantic metaphysical pretensions ("le cercle rouge" (1970);"le samouraï (1967)).Besides, these works are overlong,slow-moving and dull.

Paradoxically,his works I find the most intriguing and interesting are his non-gangsters movies:both "le silence de la mer" (1948) and "l'armée des ombres" (1969) deal with French resistance during WW2 and they are both commendable."Les enfants terribles" (1950)perfectly captures Cocteau 's spirit .And then there's "Leon Morin prêtre".

This movie is a different matter ,because its main purpose is religion.A cast against type Jean-Paul Belmondo (whom Melville would direct again the following year in "Le doulos" )rises to the occasion and thus shows he could have been more ambitious in his future career.But facing Emmanuelle Riva ("Hiroshima mon amour" ) was not an easy task,because ambitious she definitely is:one of the subtlest actresses French cinema had ever known,she never had the career she deserved because her playing was too brilliant and probably scared most of the directors .Here she delivers the goods:her part of an atheist who meets a priest during WW2 is very austere and may repel some,but her performance is thoroughly fascinating.The first line she says to priest Morin is "Religion is the opium of the people:then begins a bewildering story,during which she regains faith.And this renaissance is ambiguous:is-it because of the tragical events that stem from the war that surrounds them -one of her friend's son is sent to a concentration camp ,and he'll never return-? Is it because she is madly in love with the priest -one scene shows her try to get him into her bed-?Is it because hers is such an unfulfilled life -a daughter,but no partner-?Is it because of the priest's convincing words ,now simple,now very intellectual?The movie consists of very long conversation about faith -a whole scene revolves around Christ's famous words :"my God why have you forsaken me?"-.

That's why I would recommend the movie to people interested in theology ,or simply to believers.The others may yawn their head off.

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7 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
A pamphlet of leftist propaganda, 26 June 2009
4/10
Author: Cristi_Ciopron from CGSM, Soseaua Nationala 49

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Melville's sermon from a Leninist pulpit aims at proving to the commies the respectability of some leftist priests; in short time, Card. Montini was to be elected Pope, and he was a Léon Morin type—leftist, iconoclast, unconventional—though of course far less nice and likable than Belmondo. Melville saluted, from his small Leninist pulpit, the advent of a new fashion—the controversial dim—witted leftist priest.

Belmondo looked well in a cassock; perhaps he even looked like a priest, and this only inasmuch as a trendy Vatican II priest may look anyhow. During the Nazi occupation, Father Léon Morin gives a commie woman a book by a German theologian …--now that's cool ….

As a philosophical fiction, Abbé Morin is not interesting—his theology is incoherent, short—sighted, slapdash and even senile—he simultaneously teaches his spiritual daughter that the Jansenism is a heresy—and that this doesn't really matter; that conversion means commitment, and that the true Church is the invisible one, of the people of good—will …. Such was the fashion of the leftist Sovietized priests. If Jansenism teaching is as good as any other, then why say it's a heresy, in the first place? Why ignore what was puerile and fanatic and gloomy and rigid about the communists as well? Why show the communists as the New Israel, an ideal towards which all Christians must strive to head? And also Morin's smart talk, his smart—ass talk, his being streetwise and if needed firm …; yet there's one scene that I liked ( besides those with Christine and Sabine …)—when Riva bullies the priest and blasphemes about his silences and talks nonsense and Léon Morin tells her than when he was a boy and talking silly his folks were sending him to talk to the walls.

Morin is the fashionable priest of the '60s—ideologue, sentimental, dim—witted, opposed to mostly everything the Church distinctly meant. Of course, Morin is the naughty French version; Greene wrote one for another country, his Quijote priest. The trend was to see in the commies the new Christians. And the Church needed a confirmation from this new sect that organized religion was still possible. Remember Greene's characters—Quixote and his friend the communist politician. Inasmuch as 'Léon Morin' can be deemed representative, it proves also that this fashionable priest was indeed acceptable for the Leninists—they agreed with his ways, etc..

'Léon Morin' is an attempt of making the clergy credible for the communist sect. Otherwise, the script is confused, murky, badly written, clumsy (--as usual with Melville …--); the characters are artificial and abstract, their lines are mere rubbish …. The result is a declamatory, sentimental, intellectually fake movie. Melville shows the party that some priests could be useful.

Léon Morin is the village's sage, the priest who loathes the religious fanatics and the over—pious, and does not loath the commie fanatics; the movie is corny, artificial, abstract and sentimental. The communists' piety does not annoy this Abbé; he reserves his … for the religious piety. Morin is also the quintessential Vatican II priest—open—minded, simplistic, corny, full of slogans, leftist and enemy of the ancient church architecture. The first part of 'Léon Morin' could of been a Godard flick; artistically, the whole movie, as made by Melville, is null.

I saw Melville's flick is an adaptation; so there was a novel as well, and this shows the Vatican II as preceded by a trend and a fashion—the Morin class of priests. The more bright Morins went on to write GAUDIUM AND SPES. Those dim—witted, the average Léon Morin as it were, dislike Papini and columns in the church and pious old people and people praying the Rosary during the Mass; they like Karl Adam and the communists and glass cathedrals and the simplicity of the communist women. Morin adds Lenin to the catechism. The communist Melville liked this.

Truth be told, there are some hot babes in this flick—Sabine and Christine; Christine is the hotter, while Sabine is the smoother—and darker—Riva even likens Sabine to a ray of dark light—now here's communist poetry. The touch of Sapphic love is quite sexy too.

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