For anyone who is familiar with Jean Paul Belmondo, you will no doubt associate him with the French New Wave of the 1960s - not least his role as the smooth, pouting, petty criminal in Godard's 'A Bout de Souffle'. Well, that's the first image of him that springs to my mind and you can imagine my surprise when I watched Leon Morin, Pretre to find him playing a devout priest in a philosophical discussion about religion. I came away on the edge of my seat for the sexually frustrated torment of Emmanuelle Riva's character. Melville portrays her as a bold, wayward young woman who is a militant communist in occupied France. Girl power indeed.
If you want to look at the beautiful Belmondo pace up and down in a habit for a couple of hours, then watch this film. What's more if you want to come away on the verge of hysterical torture, for the deftly portrayed frustration and unrequited love of this poor young heroine, then make yourself comfortable and get ready to flex the philosophical muscles, those French do know how to think...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055082/plotsummary
Oh lord what a demi-god!!! Godly indeed!!! Torturous brilliance! Even better, today we watched Alain Delon smoulder his way through Melville's 70s cop movie Le Cercle Rouge with the sexiest 'tache you've ever seen and a trenchcoat verging on the indecent!
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