Diary of a Country Priest

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For the book by an English country priest, see The Diary of a Country Parson.
Diary of a Country Priest
Diary of a Country Priest.jpg
Theatrical poster release
Directed byRobert Bresson
Written byRobert Bresson
Based onThe Diary of a Country Priest
1936 novel
by Georges Bernanos
Produced by
Léon Carré
Starring
Claude Laydu
CinematographyLéonce-Henri Burel
Edited byPaulette Robert
Music byJean-Jacques Grünenwald
Distributed byBrandon Films Inc.
Release date
  • 7 February 1951 (1951-02-07)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

Diary of a Country Priest (French: Journal d'un curé de campagne) is a 1951 French drama film written and directed by Robert Bresson, and starring Claude Laydu. It was closely based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. Published in 1936, the novel received the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française. It tells the story of a young sickly priest who has been assigned to his first parish, a village in northern France.

Diary of a Country Priest was lauded for Laydu's debut performance, which has been called one of the greatest in the history of cinema; the film won numerous awards, including the Grand Prize at the Venice International Film Festival, and the Prix Louis Delluc.[1]

Plot[]

A young priest arrives at the small village of Ambricourt, his first parish assignment. He arrives alone by bicycle and is met by no one and unpacks his meager belongings. A couple at the chateau eye him suspiciously and walk away. He begins a diary, which he narrates throughout the film. Because he often feels nauseous and dizzy, he chooses a strict diet free of meat and vegetables. Instead, he has wine and wine-soaked bread with sugar.

A man from his parish demands a full service funeral for his wife and says he will not pay for it. He confers with the priest of Torcy. The girls of the catechism class laugh at him in a prank, whereby only one of them pretends to know the Scriptural basis of the Eucharist so that the rest of them can laugh at their private conversation. His colleagues criticize his diet of bread and wine, and his ascetic lifestyle. Concerned about Chantal, the daughter of the Countess, the priest visits the Countess at the family chateau, and appears to help her resume communion with God after a period of doubt. The Countess dies during the following night, and her daughter spreads false rumors that the priest's harsh words had tormented her to death. Refusing confession, Chantal had previously spoken to the priest about her hatred of her parents.

The older priest from Torcy talks to his younger colleague about his poor diet and lack of prayer, but the younger man seems unable to make changes. After his health worsens, the young priest goes to the city of Lille to visit a doctor, who diagnoses him with stomach cancer. The priest goes for refuge to a former colleague, who has lapsed and now works as an apothecary, while living with a woman outside wedlock. The priest dies in the house of his colleague after being absolved by him. His dying words are "What does it matter? All is Grace".

Cast[]

  • Claude Laydu as Priest of Ambricourt
  • Jean Riveyre as Count (Le Comte)
  • Adrien Borel as Priest of Torcy (Curé de Torcy) (as Andre Guibert)
  • Rachel Bérendt as Countess (La Comtesse) (as Marie-Monique Arkell)
  • Nicole Maurey as Miss Louise
  • Nicole Ladmiral as Chantal
  • Martine Lemaire as Séraphita Dumontel
  • Antoine Balpêtré as Dr. Delbende (Docteur Delbende) (as Balpetre)
  • Jean Danet as Olivier
  • Gaston Séverin as Canon (Le Chanoine) (as Gaston Severin)
  • Yvette Etiévant as Femme de ménage
  • Bernard Hubrenne as Priest Dufrety
  • Léon Arvel as Fabregars

Production[]

Two other French scriptwriters, Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost, had wanted to make film adaptations of the novel. Bernanos rejected Aurenche's first draft. By the time Bresson worked on the screenplay, Bernanos had died. Bresson said he "would have taken more liberties," if Bernanos were still alive.[2]

This film marked a transition period for Bresson, as he began using non-professional actors (with the exception of the Countess). It was also the first film in which Bresson utilized a complex soundtrack and voice-over narration, stating that "an ice-cold commentary can warm, by contrast, tepid dialogues in a film. Phenomenon analogous to that of hot and cold in painting."[1]

Guy Lefranc was assistant director on the movie.

Analysis[]

The film is a blending of dialogue and commentary, founded on the interior voice of the priest. Faithful to the spirit of Georges Bernanos, the author of Journal d'un curé de campagne,[3] Bresson strips the story open thoroughly by composing a sequence of exemplary sobriety. At such a point could François Truffaut say that the film, which he particularly admired, had sound scenes that were "down-to-earth." (Bresson limits the most possible expressions and intonations of professional comedians; thus, for this sequence, he did not work elsewhere with amateurs, which he called "models"). Forcing himself a remarkable distance from relation to his subject who is "a man who limits perpetual states of the soul," he refuses all melodramatic effects and all mystic interpretations.

A profoundly religious and Christian film, Diary of a Country Priest is also the exploration of being a rebel of prey to a fixed idea, a theme that is consistent in the work of Bresson. Absent of all "psychologism," like all judgment of value, the director uniquely raises a question to something of significance to himself, thereby making Diary of a Country Priest a captivating and mysterious work.

Reception[]

Diary of a Country Priest was a financial success in France and established Bresson's international reputation as a major film director. Film critic André Bazin wrote an entire essay on the film, calling it a masterpiece "because of its power to stir the emotions, rather than the intelligence."[1] Claude Laydu's debut performance in the title role has been described as one of the greatest in the history of film. Jean Tulard, in his Dictionary of Film, wrote of him in this work, "No other actor deserves to go to heaven as much as Laydu."[4]

Diary of a Country Priest continues to receive high praise today. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 95% approval rating based on 37 critics, with an average rating of 8.7/10.[5] French journalist Frédéric Bonnaud praised Bresson's minimalist approach to the film's setting and argued, "For the first time in French cinema, the less the environment is shown, the more it resonates [...] ubiquitous and constant, persistent and unchanging, it doesn’t need to be shown: its evocation through sound is enough. It’s a veritable prison."[6] John Simon of the National Review praised the film and regarded it as Bresson's best film.[7] Film critic Armond White, of the New York Press, praised the film noting that "... Bresson exemplified 20th-century ecumenical intelligence that is much out of fashion today, yet remains singular and powerful."[8] The Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman was "extremely fond" of the film and called it, "one of the strangest works ever made".[9][10] The Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke regards the film as one of his favorite films from Bresson.[11] The Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa listed the film on his top 10 films from the Criterion Collection.[12] The Russian film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky ranked the film number one in his top ten films of all time.[13] American director Martin Scorsese said the film influenced his own Taxi Driver (1976).[14] Several reviewers of the 2017 film First Reformed noted that writer and director Paul Schrader, who also wrote the script for Taxi Driver, appeared to be heavily influenced by the film.[15][16][17]

Awards[]

The film won eight international awards, including the Grand Prize at the Venice International Film Festival, and the Prix Louis Delluc.[1]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Wakeman 1987, pp. 57.
  2. ^ Truffaut, François (2004). "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema". Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies (Philip Simpson ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis. p. 11.
  3. ^ "Journal d'un curé de campagne". Cinémathèque Française (in French). Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via Bifi.fr.
  4. ^ Robert Bergan, "Claude Laydu obituary", The Guardian, 7 August 2011, accessed 15 June 2014
  5. ^ "Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne) (1954)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  6. ^ Bonnaud, Frédéric (2 February 2004). "Diary of a Country Priest - From the Current". Film Comment. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  7. ^ John Simon. "Ingmar Bergman on Mouchette". RobertBresson.com. Retrieved 18 June 2021. John Simon: "What about Bresson? How do you feel about him?" Ingmar Bergman: "Oh, Mouchette! I loved it, I loved it! But Balthazar was so boring, I slept through it." John Simon: "I liked Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne and A Man Escaped, but I would say The Diary of a Country Priest is the best one." Ingmar Bergman: "I have seen it four or five times and could see it again ... and Mouchette ... really ..."
  8. ^ Armond White (February 23, 2011). "Crises of Faith". New York Press. New York Press. Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  9. ^ "Bergman about other filmmakers". Ingmar Bergman Face to Face. Ingmar Bergman Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2011. Ingmar Bergman: "Jag är också oerhört förtjust i En prästmans dagbok, som är ett av de märkligaste verk som någonsin gjordes. Nattvardsgästerna är ganska influerad av den."
  10. ^ Philip Mosley (1981). Ingmar Bergman - The Cinema as Mistress. M. Boyars. p. 71. ISBN 9780714526447.
  11. ^ Zachary Wigon (December 19, 2009). "Fueling the Audience's Mistrust: The White Ribbon". Tribeca. Tribeca Enterprises LLC. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  12. ^ "Pedro Costa's Top 10". The Criterion Collection. March 10, 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  13. ^ Lasica, Tom. "Tarkovsky's Choice". Nostalghia.com. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  14. ^ Martin Scorsese: Interviews, ed. Peter Brunette. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi (1999): 67. "Don't forget that is what the priest is doing in Diary of a Country Priest."
  15. ^ "'First Reformed' is One of the Best Films of the Year". 20 May 2018.
  16. ^ "SDG Reviews 'First Reformed'".
  17. ^ "First Reformed, starring Ethan Hawke, is bruising, vital, and one of the year's best films". 25 May 2018.

Sources[]

  • Wakeman, John (1987). World Film Directors. Vol. 1. The H. W. Wilson Company.

Further reading[]

  • Tibbetts, John C., and James M. Welsh, eds. The Encyclopedia of Novels Into Film (2nd ed. 2005) pp 98–99.

External links[]

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