- Leon Morin, Pretre is a strange and occasionally fascinating film that depicts the widow Barny's (Emmanuelle Riva) relationship with a local priest Leon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo) during the Occupation of France. This is one of director Jean-Pierre Melville's earlier efforts, falling chronologically after the brilliant Bob Le Flambeur but prior to the streak of "tough guy" films for which he is most famous. In many respects, it is markedly different from his later work in a way that his next film, Le Doulos, was not. For instance, there is probably more dialogue in the first hour of Leon than in the remainder of Melville's entire body of work. Likewise, Barny is one of the few interesting and sympathetic women that Melville has ever portrayed, and Leon surely must be the only priest.
- When we first meet Barny, she is already a widow and seems a bit, well, confused. Although she formally denies it, it is obvious that she is sexually attracted to her female supervisor at work in an era when this would not have been socially acceptable. One day, she decides to go to church to argue with a priest, any priest, over what she views as Catholic hypocrisy. She is surprised there to meet the priest Leon, who is much more progressive and thoughtful than she expects. In fact, Leon is more progressive than anyone should expect a pre-Vatican II era Catholic priest to be, but maybe there could have been one such person in the world. Regardless, Barny converts (or reverts) to Catholicism while simultaneously falling in love with Leon, a man who can never accept her as anything but a friend and parishioner.
- Admittedly, I was reasonably unimpressed with the scenes that consisted exclusively of Barny and Leon attempting to theologically and conversationally outmaneuver one another. I quickly missed Melville's usual taciturnity, although I admit that some of this criticism stems from the uncomfortable task of having to read so many subtitles. The portrayal of life under the Occupation, however, was impressive, particularly since the fighting was usually implied rather than shown. It was also interesting to see that American forces of liberation were not always as altruistic as they are often portrayed. Barny's increasing obsession with Leon is engrossing, too, although I'm not sure how to interpret the story as a whole. Are we to feel sad for Barny because she set her sights on the unattainable or glad because Leon has saved her soul? Perhaps this film is a Rorschach test for people's religious views. Some might feel Barny was blessed in the end to have found God, but a less reverent reviewer would count Him third in a line of replacements for Barny's husband.
- In case you missed it, Jean-Paul Belmondo was a priest!
