1961 | France | Fiction

Léon Morin, Priest

  • French 117 mins
  • Director | Jean-Pierre Melville
  • Writer | Jean-Pierre Melville
  • Producer | Georges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

Jean-Paul Belmondo delivers a subtly sensual performance in the hot-under-the-collar Léon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, prêtre), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The French superstar plays a devoted man of the cloth who is desired by all the women of a small village in Nazi-occupied France. He finds himself most drawn to a sexually frustrated widow—played by Emmanuelle Riva—a religious skeptic whose relationship with her confessor turns into a confrontation with both God and her own repressed desire. A triumph of mood, setting, and innuendo, Léon Morin, Priest is an irreverent pleasure from one of French cinema’s towering virtuosos.

Faith Desire Occupation Temptation Conflict
Film Organizations
The Criterion Collection
DISTRIBUTION