Leon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, Prêtre)

Writer and Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring: Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Patricia Gozzi, Nicole Mirel
Runtime: 117'
Year of Production: 1961

One of the greatest films directed by the top French creator of "Le Samourai" and "Le Cercle Rouge", the awarded in Venice Film Festival "Leon Morin, Priest" has in its leading roles two young people, erotic stars of the time, who Melville handles unexpectedly, like pawns in a complex chessboard: In the years of Occupation, a communist (Emmanuelle Riva from "Hiroshima, My Love" is exquisite) is found in the humanistic net of a genuine altruistic-rebel priest (a totally magnetic Jean-Paul Belmondo) who converts her but also romantically seduces her. However, are things the way they seem?

Spirit and flesh, sex and power, earthly and lift-off, affirmation and denial, are some of the bipolar of human imperfection (or is it perfection?) that Jean-Pierre Melville observes with his sharp, underground sadomasochistic vignettes, right before letting a torturing, sarcastic doubt overwhelm you, implying, among other things, that the search for the Divine is really good (...), but also leaves a sour taste to those who don't manage it. Ilias Dimopoulos

60th anniversary screening of the film, supported by the French Institute of Greece on the occasion of the French National Day.

ATTENDANCE TO SCREENINGS

- Entrance to the screening premises will be permitted only by indicating the ENTRY PASS which viewers can provide

a. either on-site at the location of the screening 

b. or through online reservation, two days before each screening (reservations open at noon) on aoaff.gr

- Each viewer is allowed ONLY ONE entry pass.

- Entrance and pass supply will commence an hour and a half before each screening. 

- Viewers who have online reservations must collect their entry pass at least 15' earlier than the time of the screening, otherwise their seat will be released and instantly re-supplied