572 Léon Morin, Priest

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kinjitsu · #1 Post by **kinjitsu** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:13 pm

Jean-Paul Belmondo dons clerical robes and delivers a subtly sensual performance for the hot-under-the-collar Léon Morin, Priest, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The French superstar plays a devoted man of the cloth who is the crush object of 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 borderline heretic whose relationship with her confessor is 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.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Archival interview with director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo
- Visual essay by French film scholar Ginette Vincendeau
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic and novelist Gary Indiana

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matrixschmatrix · #2 Post by **matrixschmatrix** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:34 pm

Wow, I hope that's a really solid visual essay, because if not that's a weak features set. They've really been moving away from commentaries and towards essays lately, haven't they?

colinr0380 · #3 Post by **colinr0380** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:37 pm

I wonder if it is just a different term for the Vincendeau select scene commentary from the BFI disc, given that the Le Doulos disc ported over the BFI extras. Having said that, I'm definitely upgrading this for the Blu-ray - the archival interviews are also new (the BFI disc instead had an interview with Volker Schlörndorff, who was the assistant director on the film).

#4 Post by **domino harvey** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:18 pm

Another title they've sat on for years and then produced hardly anything for

#5 Post by **swo17** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:39 pm

I'm a little more forgiving of the features being light when they've already released so many other films by the director.

rrenault · #6 Post by **rrenault** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:08 pm

Does Studio Canal have nothing to do with this film stateside?

knives · #7 Post by **knives** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:13 pm

Maybe. The film is licensed via Rialto which suggests a SC connection as does the minimal special features, but it doesn't guarantee it.

rrenault · #8 Post by **rrenault** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:22 pm

Well not all Rialto films have North American Studio Canal affiliations (i.e. 2 or 3 Things I know about her, Made in U.S.A.). There are three possibilities.

1)SC has, in fact, nothing to do with Leon Morin in the US

2)SC gave up on relying solely on Lionsgate, because of how much of a disaster the SC Collection has been, but the public is unaware of such proceedings

3) There's a large enough window of time for Studio Canal to benefit financially from the release before they'd lose the rights.

Brian C · #9 Post by **Brian C** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 7:12 pm

Don't forget 4) All mention of this release is scrubbed from the Criterion site next week, a la Ran.

rrenault · #10 Post by **rrenault** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 11:27 pm

Hmm...I doubt 4, since if studio canal does have US rights to the film, Criterion is probably aware of how much time they'll have before they'd have to renew the license. I'm sure they released the Pierrot Le Fou blu ray, knowing it would only be in print for a few months. Ran I think was the first of the Studio Canal releases to go, and I think they lost it unexpectedly and then realized from there on out studio canal would not be renewing any of their licenses.

criterionsnob · #11 Post by **criterionsnob** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:50 pm

Beaver

knives · #12 Post by **knives** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:38 am

The differences between Melville and Bresson have never been more highlighted to me than right now. This is so much more the later's style than that of it true director that it becomes more interesting as a Melville film. I'm not entirely certain what it is I'm picking up on the shows this difference. Could it be something as simple as the characters? I don't know, but this one clearly has Melville's interests in a different place than usual.

#13 Post by **zedz** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:02 pm

knives wrote:The differences between Melville and Bresson have never been more highlighted to me than right now. This is so much more the later's style than that of it true director that it becomes more interesting as a Melville film.

I've got to take issue with that, since Melville used that 'Bressonian' style in Le Silence de la Mer before Bresson adopted it for himself. But you're right that there's a very interesting tension between Melville's mode here and the one he uses in his gangster films, and it sheds interesting light on his approach to more typically genre material.

knives · #14 Post by **knives** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:22 pm

I should have mentioned that I haven't seen that one. What I generally meant to say was that the connection between the two was always clear, but this film highlights the differences in a very interesting way.

Saturnome · #15 Post by **Saturnome** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:47 pm

Léon Morin is my first non-gangster Melville (outside of Army of Shadows and I caught 24 heures dans la vie d'un clown on Youtube) and it was a surprise. I find the description misleading tough, even if the focus is on Belmondo, Emmanuelle Riva is the main protagonist, a surprising thing for me. And there is a lot, a lot of theological discussion in this film, which somehow I wasn't expecting at all. I'm fine with it as the subject is interesting and the characters fascinating (indeed, the role was for Belmondo). Now I'm really curious to see what Melville's early career was like.

knives · #16 Post by **knives** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:02 pm

To my understanding Melville despite doing a great job here was really derogatory to the film and only did it to get back into the public's good graces after his Manhattan film failed.

Saturnome · #17 Post by **Saturnome** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:35 pm

While he made it because his previous film failed, through the little info I've read, he seems supportive of the project, but it may be all in retrospective or just to look good. Where you got that?

knives · #18 Post by **knives** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:49 pm

I can't remember where I read it, but Melville on a few occasions derided the movie as nothing more than a christian tale (remember he was a Jewish born atheist). Given the changes from the novel (which covers the entire community) and that comment it sounds like he maximized certain elements that would play well with French audiences. If anything the amazing amount of depth shown in the film shows that even when half assing Melville couldn't really shut off.

jbeall · #19 Post by **jbeall** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:28 pm

In the interview included on this disc, Melville says he was sitting on it for eight years but never started because he couldn't find an actor right for the part of Morin, and that it was only after watching Breathless that he decided to try and get Belmondo, who was initially reluctant and had to be convinced by Melville. Obviously, unless his name is Vincent Gallo, no director is going to badmouth his film during a televised interview, so take it for what it's worth.

Regardless, I quite liked this film. I don't get the Bressonian parallels, probably because Bresson's film leaves me cold (probably due to his use of the actors as 'models'), while Emmanuelle Riva is fantastic here, radiating both warmth and intelligence. Belmondo's no slouch, but Riva really shines in this film. (Can you tell I have a crush? Don't tell my wife!)

As to the film itself, it reminds me much more of Le Silence de la Mer in that much of the plot is structured around conversation, the obvious difference being that in Leon Morin, both parties actually speak to each other. But in both films, it's the unexpressed desire that generates the tension. The theological discussions were fascinating not for their surface-level content, but for the desire bubbling beneath the surface of Barny's calm facade. For a great deal of the film, she's not even aware of what she wants. Interestingly, it's Morin's occasionally rough masculinity--he pushes women into his chamber or out of his way on several occasions--and the air of authority he exudes, even though the character is only 26, that form the source of his appeal. I thought he was a bit of a physical bully with Barny, even as his conversation was much more respectful. I suppose that probably says something about his own repressed desires, but I was watching Belmondo less than Riva simply because I thought she was so magnetic in this role.

Jack Phillips · #20 Post by **Jack Phillips** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 7:31 pm

jbeall wrote: The theological discussions were fascinating not for their surface-level content, but for the desire bubbling beneath the surface of Barny's calm facade.

Better: "The theological discussions were fascinating for their surface-level content AND for the desire bubbling beneath the surface of Barney's calm facade."

Why reduce the complex interaction between two human characters (drawn from life) to a single facet?

jbeall · #21 Post by **jbeall** » Sun Aug 28, 2011 4:35 am

Jack Phillips wrote:Better: "The theological discussions were fascinating for their surface-level content AND for the desire bubbling beneath the surface of Barney's calm facade."

Why reduce the complex interaction between two human characters (drawn from life) to a single facet?

You're right, of course. I think I was just trying to argue for Leon Morin's merits against Melville's alleged dismissal of his own film. I'm not catholic, but then the catholic theology to me wasn't solely, or even primarily, what the film's about.

jojo · #22 Post by **jojo** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:37 pm

jbeall wrote:Emmanuelle Riva is fantastic here, radiating both warmth and intelligence. Belmondo's no slouch, but Riva really shines in this film. (Can you tell I have a crush? Don't tell my wife!)

Riva is unbelievably sexy in this film! I suspect many men who watch this film will fall for her. It also doesn't hurt that her character basically just wants a good fuck.

The amazing thing is she basically does this entirely by body language and facial expression alone. IIRC, she is never seen less than fully clothed during the entire film.

colinr0380 · #23 Post by **colinr0380** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:53 pm

I was going to mention that Emmanuelle Riva is also in the upcoming Three Colours: Blue as Binoche's mother, though it somehow seems inappropriate in the light of jojo's heated post!

jbeall · #24 Post by **jbeall** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 11:11 pm

jojo wrote:Riva is unbelievably sexy in this film! I suspect many men who watch this film will fall for her. It also doesn't hurt that her character basically just wants a good fuck.

The amazing thing is she basically does this entirely by body language and facial expression alone. IIRC, she is never seen less than fully clothed during the entire film.

HA! And not only fully clothed, but in some decidedly unsexy clothing! Lots of heavy coats...

Not to go off-topic, but Riva shows, IMHO, that intelligence is so much sexier than the plasticine "beauty" of Jessica Simpson and her ilk.

SamLowry · #25 Post by **SamLowry** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 5:13 pm

Has anyone seen Melville's original 3 hour version or the 130 minute festival version? I really liked the way the film began, but felt more unsatisfied as it progressed. It seemed to become more disjointed as the film progressed. Her conversion seemed too pat, the themes discussed in the beginning don't feel really developed & Morin's smug self-assuredness about his answers seem to fly in the face of the circumstances of the occupation, yet nothing questions his resolute answers. Two of the cut scenes that were included as extras indicate that Melville had much more material about the impact of occupation on the residents & commentary has stated that he wanted to narrow it down to focus just on the relationship between the two, but I found this a little lacking towards the end. The trailer also indicates that Morin has more interaction with 5 of the women in the movie, but Melville's cuts really turned the edit we see in the Criterion edition into a different beast.

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