Priest (1994)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Antonia Bird

Writer:

Jimmy McGovern (writer)

Release Date:

24 March 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

In a world of rituals, in a place of secrets, a man must choose between keeping the faith and exposing the truth.

Plot:

Father Greg Pilkington (Linus Roache) is torn between his call as a conservative Catholic priest and his secret life as a homosexual with a gay lover...

Plot Keywords:

Church | Priest | Love | God | Confession

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Linus Roache	...	Father Greg Pilkington
Tom Wilkinson	...	Father Matthew Thomas
Robert Carlyle	...	Graham
Cathy Tyson	...	Maria Kerrigan
Lesley Sharp	...	Mrs. Unsworth
Robert Pugh	...	Mr. Unsworth
James Ellis	...	Father Ellerton
Christine Tremarco	...	Lisa Unsworth
Paul Barber	...	Charlie
Rio Fanning	...	Bishop
Jim R. Coleman	...	Funeral director
Bill Dean	...	Altar boy
Gilly Coman	...	Ellie Molloy
Fred Pearson	...	Patrick
Jimmy Gallagher	...	Mick Molloy

MPAA:

Rated R for depiction of mature themes involving sexuality.

Runtime:

105 min | USA:98 min | Argentina:98 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:18 | Iceland:12 | South Korea:18 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:III | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Blundellsands, Merseyside, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Director Antonia Bird cut a scene of Linus Roache's bare buttocks to ensure only an R rating in the USA.

Goofs:

Continuity: Father Greg holds up a communion wafer which is smooth. The scene cuts to Graham and then back to Father Greg, and the wafer has a diagonal line across it.

Quotes:

Father Greg Pilkington: They used to ask us a question when we were in seminary: a man comes up to you in confession and tells you that he's poisoned the altar wine. Do you go out and say Mass? I had no problem with it; I'd go out and drink the wine. I suppose there's a little of the martyr in all of us.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Italiensk for begyndere (2000)

Soundtrack:

THE FIELDS OF ATHENRY

Judge not lest ye be judged..

Priests are not often the heroes of movies:some famous predecessors were Robert Bresson's "journal d'un curé de campagne" (1945),Luis Bunuel's "Nazarin" (1958) and Jean-Pierre Melville 's "Leon Morin prêtre" (1961).But none of these directors went as far as Antonia Bird .Their movies were perhaps esthetically better,but nothing shocking for people who were brought up religiously ,nothing like the pictures of this priest lying on a bed with his lover.One will add that Bunuel's movie was looked upon as "very Christian" by the Spanish censorship when it was exactly the contrary.But it's difficult to consider Bird's work a fable:it's a realistic story,where sex occupies the center of the plot:sex between the other priest and the housekeeper,sex between the father and his daughter,sex between Rochman and Carlyle .Bird's style,though depicting the poor sides of Liverpool is very different from Kenneth Loach's .Her pictures are polished up ,like the one in confessional where the incest father is speaking through the grille ,or the two lovers on the beach.

Bird's movie is very interesting because it broaches the problem of celibacy in the catholic religion (protestant priests are allowed to marry aren't they),and,as the hero remarks "Jesus did not ask for chastity did he?"A hero who is not always very smart:"be discreet" he tells to his colleague who sleeps with the housekeeper,but he kisses his lover in a car in broad daylight.

The final battle in the church is particularly interesting,because it's a battle of words,repeating quotations from the Bible,and there are so many ways of interpreting its meanings .It seems that the priest uses the New testament ( judge not lest...,Mary Magdelene, forgive not seven times but seventy)whereas his enemy draws from the old one (a man sleeping with a man is an abomination).

The seal of the confessional subject is not that much new however:even in 1953,Hitchcock made "I confess" in which Montgomery Clift was confronted to the same problem.

Best line;the older priest ,telling a shocked congregation that God is probably too busy to care about what men do with their d.....