Diary of a Country Priest

Considering that it had a PSI of 96, this was a major disappointment. It's skillfully made, sure, and well-acted to boot. However, the seeming lack of direction and the (almost provocatively) slow pace in Bresson's storytelling tested my patience and made me lose consciousness almost as often as the protagonist. For a tighter film with more finely tuned points on theology and faith, watch Dreyer's 'Ordet'.

Graceful and powerful. Claude Laydu's performance as the priest under physical and spiritual anguish is fantastic, carried not only through his words (and writings, as is) but with emotive facial expressions. Bresson's minimalist style is highly effective, and the beauty and grace of his direction perfectly suits the material: his gorgeous black-and-white photography, the perfect framing, the subtlety of the entire film.

A real snoozer. Bresson handles similar issues to better effect in Les Anges du Peche.

Claude Laydu's face is the second most memorable in my movie experience--right next to Falconetti's in "The Passion of Joan of Arc." The film may seem boring if you don't give yourself to it completely, but if you pay attention, it can be a transforming spiritual experience. At the very least, it will increase your respect for all those obscure lives filled with quiet nobility and suffering.

As a story about a country priest it's not that great. We never really get to know him, despite how much we're told about his thoughts through his diary and through his actions. The real strength lies in the characterizations of the townspeople and their interactions with the priest. It's through them that Bresson shows his love/hate relationship with humanity. It does get a bit preachy at times, but not more than would be expected in a movie where a young ambitious priest plays the central role

Vastly inferior to other early films by Bresson. It doen't suck but it's meandering and way too full of religious crap for its own sake. It continually insists that our priest is tormented by this and that, but more often than not it's hard to tell why exactly.

Great movie but the whole “I could prove my innocence but won’t because of vague moral reasons that make sense only to me!” thing will always annoy me lmao. Very easy to see the influence on so many other films but for me not an S-tier Bresson.

Claude Laydu was a spitting image of Johnny Cash! Almost a rebel priest. So the dark mood was a fitting one. While I like depressing films, I did feel this was a little too much of a one-mood picture. Perfects it, but I wouldn't have minded shaking emotions up a little more than this, for it did get a little dull after a while. Had some clever dialogue as this priest tries to make his mark with his community, and it's more of a clash than a comforting relationship he has in his new parish.

Restrained but masterful camerawork and well-matched performances make for a compelling but occasionally winding telling of a quiet country tale. Claude Laydu's priest burns like a votive candle in a dark room: brightly but briefly.

From start to finish, such a precise, subtle, poignant portrait of man of constant sorrow.

Deathly serious drama that drags a bit at times but is a thoughtful film that feels a bit less detached than normal Bressons I've seen. Spiritual, but you don't need to be a religious person to appreciate it.

Pretty much as good as motion pitchers get.

Pure cinema.

I hate saying a film is boring, I think it is bad and lazy criticism; but this is boring, I just kind of got so bored in the 2nd half, the first hour went by normally, the 2nd hour just killed my enthusiasm completely. It is not like I don't get Bresson's style, Pickpocket is a good film. But this just did not interest me much. It was filmed nicely, acted well (minus the daughter) and the atmosphere was well crafted. But god, I just couldn't stop yawning.

Nah, this is too theatrical for me. A couple of scenes work well, but way too much voice-over in between them. I'll take First Reformed over this any day.

to be able to give peace we ourselves do not possess, sweet miracle of our empty hands.

Sure, Bresson is able to use a bare miminum of visuals and sound design to successfully build a world's that feels like an austere existential prison... and then what? There wasn't a single character, conflict or incident I cared about in the film. There was nothing to connect to. "But," you say, "it's not about the narrative, it's about the *experience*." Sorry, I've had clinical depression for 12 years, I don't need Bresson to show me what bleak hopelessness feels like.

While Schrader's First Reformed deals in the oppressiveness of how religion interacts with 21st century society, Bresson's original is overwhelmingly melancholic and often deliberately obscure in its depiction of lost souls.

A dense meditation on faith (and small-town communities that have their own secrets). The character studies are interesting, but almost agonizingly slow. Probably deserves a re-watch to pick up on the subtleties.

87.50

Só não dei nota maior porque não consigo entender gente religiosa e não estou falando dos personagens e sim do próprio Bresson, Box Versátil A Arte de Robert Bresson.

Gloomy religious themed drama features many of the themes that would come to dominate Bresson's films--the absence of God, the cruelty of man, the futility of goodness--with a prominent use of voiceover that brings its lead character depictions closer to psychological realism than his more opaque late works. Laydu is remarkable as the tormented priest, his suffering rendered painfully visible on his weary countenance, and Bresson creates beautiful and moving imagery with effortless ease.

Like in many French movies, characters are competing with each other to be the most profound. I don't know if French people are all super philosophical, but apparently I am not. I liked the story of a good man struggling to be faithful in an unappreciative community. The priest was flawed and self-absorbed but trying really hard. I did really enjoy everything but the more pretentious dialogue. My favorite scene was with the motorcycle. When he smiles it's very powerful.

25? Agost 2016 - El començament m'ha interessat, el ritme de la narració, el personatge. Però sha anat fent cada cop més feixuc, incomprensible i abstracte. M'ha acabat fartant.

Absorbing technique, depressing story. Don't think anyone smiles.

bresson and faith. could this ever have been anything less than profound? claude ladyu's eyes, my god. up there with maria falconetti.

The storytelling and acting are very successfully done.

If you like your coffee black, you'll like this film. I don't like coffee at all, so I found this to be pretty boring. I can see that there's some strong discussions and analyses of theism, but it doesn't ring relevant for me in this gloomy, flat flick.

I found it technically good, but not good enough to connect with on a personal level. The plot isn't really overly interesting, but the priest himself almost was. Unfortunately it didn't focus too much on developing him as a person though. He was defined pretty only by his religious beliefs, making him a very bland character overall. Laydu was enjoyable to watch though. Some of the excerpts from his diary were pointless and pointing out the obvious. It felt like a lazy way out of showing things.

This took me four sittings to get through. It's good in a way, but it's too slow and too long. A scene would be rolling along just fine, and then dialogue would just stop and we'd get a close up of Claude Laydu staring off into space. DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR FACE, PLEASE. Ugh. If you liked some of the substance in the film but were similarly bored by it, see Ingmar Bergman's "Winter Light."

The struggle of doing good when everyone is against you.

Top10

#246

I always love movies that make me feel for a character.

"Bresson sees spiritual disorder as a disease, not unlike the stomach cancer we suspect is-and is ultimately confirmed to be-plaguing our titular character." - Rob Humanick

Bresson exemplified 20th-century ecumenical intelligence that is much out of fashion today, yet remains singular and powerful.

One of the great spiritual films of all time, and the film where Bresson's distinctive style really begins to round into form. The film chronicles the faith struggles of a priest and his parishioners, ebbing and flowing between moments of utter despair and of profound hope. The intense focus on the priest as he suffers his way to sainthood presents an almost unique portrait in film: that of a truly good man. Bresson is to be commended for adapting Bernanos' vision in such a successful way.

I feel a little more distance here than I'd like.

Powerful imagery and acting, but moves in a horribly slow fashion. I don't usually mind slow movies, but I had to struggle through this one.

242

There is something uniquely powerful about this one priest's search for God in a soulless world. While the scenes are intended to be drained of all superfluity, every one still seems charmed. Only a few scenes are heavy-handed, but these still work due to how graceful and natural the film feels as a whole.

235

I admire Bresson's rigid focus and unique sensibility, but his films rarely overwhelms me... This has - as all the others I've seen - some awe-inspiring scenes with a peculiar intensity. The gloom here persist to the very end, but do not seem as insisting as in, let's say, Mouchette. A very fascinating film, but so far only the latter-mentioned has really worked forcefully.

Pretty boring.

This is a quietly and beautifully told story of souls in struggle. While it will be necessary to accept a little theology to understand the story being told, it is not necessary to observe the art in telling it ( I am myself a total nonbeliever). But damn, this is a well-made movie. The unnamed priest is struggling, in different ways, not just with his own soul, but with the various souls in his parish. As the old priest of Torcy says "we're at war".

I really appreciate the subtlety in the way the story is told. Laydu is clearly an expert actor and Bresson is obviously a master as well. There is so much that I personally relate to in this movie that it easily places it among my favorites. I can't recommend this one more highly to anyone with even a passing interest in theology or anyone who has struggled with faith at all. It's brilliant and highly enjoyable.

# 208

The earliest Bresson film I've so far seen, but I guess this was his breakthrough in terms of the way in which he attempts, via cinematic instruments, to allow access to the extraordinary from out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, it seems notable that his next two attempts, A MAN ESCAPED and PICKPOCKET, both involve much more concrete tasks and approaches: perhaps this film showed him the limits of what could be done in this regard with a more "strictly" spiritual subject matter. Still, very good.

Very intimate portrait of a man disintegrating. It will become very obvious while you're watching it where Scorsese sto-, er, I mean, borrowed a lot of the ideas for _Taxi Driver_