#Jean-Pierre Melville

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then blessed be the everlasting torment

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Samurai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967).

[kino-zoo]

The Red Circle (1970)

[davidhudson]

Jean-Pierre Melville, October 20, 1917 – August 2, 1973.

With François Périer, André Bourvil, Yves Montand, and Alain Delon on the set of Le cercle rouge (1970). Photo by André Perlstein.

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

24 heures de la vie d'un clown (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1946)

[nicoooooooon]

Le Samouraï, 1971 Japanese movie poster for the release of the 1967 Melville film starring Alain Delon, Nathalie Delon, François Périer and Cathy Rosier

[wetsayuri]

Seijun Suzuki

[ozu-teapot]

Bob le Flambeur | Jean-Pierre Melville | 1956

Isabelle Corey

[scenephile]

No one’s forcing you

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With a single gesture, he had given me everything and taken everything away.

Léon Morin, prêtre (1961) dir. Jean-Pierre Melville

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[edwordsmyth]

Vrai faux passeport, Jean-Luc Godard (2006)

[frnndlcs]

Le Samouraï, Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967

[omercifulheaves]

Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966) (a.k.a. The Second Wind)

[davidhudson]

Jean-Pierre Melville, October 20, 1917 - August 2, 1973.

[byneddiedingo]

Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Léon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961) 

Cast: Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Irène Tunc, Nicole Mirel, Gisele Grimm, Monique Hennessy. Screenplay: Jean-Pierre Melville, based on a novel by Béatrix Beck. Cinematography: Henri Decaë. Art direction: Daniel Guéret. Film editing: Jacqueline Meppiel, Nadine Marquand, Marie-Josèph Yoyotte. Music: Marital Solal, Albert Reiser. 

The “hot priest” trope got a brief revival recently in the series Fleabag, when Andrew Scott and Phoebe Waller-Bridge struck a few sparks together in an amusing flirtation. Otherwise, priests have had a bad rep in the media since the news broke about widespread clerical sexual abuse. We have to go back to Jean-Pierre Melville's Léon Morin, Priest in 1961 to find a serious and unsensational treatment of the moral crisis that clerical celibacy can foment. It's a story set during the German occupation of France during World War II, in which a young woman (Emmanuelle Riva) finds herself attracted to a young priest (Jean-Paul Belmondo). It's a richly developed story in which faith, sexuality, and politics converge, made more intriguing by the performances of Riva and Belmondo, who vividly portray not only the sexual tension but also the intellectual and spiritual questions provoked by the encounter.