Leon Morin, Priest

I watched a movie called Leon Morin, Priest, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, released in 1961. It is based on the novel, The Passionate Heart. It stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Emmanuelle Riva. It is a story about a woman who lives in a small French town, which first gets occupied by Italian military and then the German military. During this time, the woman, played by Riva, who has a daughter, goes to the church to hurrang the priest about the hypocrisy of organized religion. She chooses the priest purely based on his name, Leon and goes to the confessional. She says her piece and is confronted with an intelligent discussion from the priest, Leon, played by Belmondo. Thus, it becomes a story of her friendship and life of that period with the priest. It is a simple story but it has many twists and turns. Since it is told from her perspective, there is a more nurturing aspect to the story that is interesting. The thing I like most about this kind of movie is that the woman will tell a little bit of the story, it will fade out and fade in, much like many French movies. I wouldn’t consider this French New Wave as it has a linear story that is pretty easy to understand. It has a lot of religious debate in it which was interesting since Riva’s character is an atheist. However, it is not beating the viewer over the head with theological concepts or trying to convert anyone. It is well thought out and well developed dialogue that should be part of any religious discussion (though I know that is not the case in real life). There was no mention of her husband, though I may have missed that part in the introduction as it was subtitled and the translation might’ve been off. It was interesting because it approached a subject that might be/is considered taboo in an adult manner. Riva is beautiful in this movie, an unconventional beauty as compared to some of her costars but that is what works for her character, she brings an inner strength and intelligent beauty that brings out her outer beauty and you fall in love with her as the movie progresses. Belmondo is very handsome indeed and it was strange seeing him as a priest though very believable.  It does end on kind of a blank, which is I suppose, a movie like this should end.
Overall, I thought it was very well written, the scenes were shot very well, and the dialogue was quite interesting to hear. I recommend this if you can find it.