Violence/Gore: At one point the priest’s face is smeared with what may be blood-saturated vomit. Another scene graphically displays the end of a wine bottle as it smashes onto the floor.

Sex/Nudity: Nope - note the title is DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST and not CONFESSIONS OF A COUNTRY PRIEST.

Best Line: “All is grace.” (the priest on his death bed)

Score:

A young priest is assigned a parish in a small community, and in spite of his consistent good will, his meek manner and outsider status prevail in making him one of the least liked priests in the area. As time goes on, his popularity continues to diminish even as his subtle acts of good will have a slight but powerful effect on a few - albeit very few - people. Eventually a persistent stomach malady proves to be the priest’s final undoing.

Robert Bresson is one of the driest directors you could ever hope to force upon a reluctant film class. For a conventional film enthusiast, being subjected to DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST is the cinematic equivalent of Chinese water torture, only superseded by Bresson’s own subsequent works, AU HASARD BALTHAZAR and LANCELOT OF THE LAKE. Generally a film maker will expect the audience to fill in a few narrative gaps here and there - essentially a sentence’s worth of information - but Bresson expects the audience to fill in whole volumes of text. Naturally - and this may sound condescending but I assure you it is not meant to be - if your idea of a good time with a film is ‘turn your brain off and go with the flow,’ avoid this movie at all costs.

The film has nary an action sequence - most of the drama comes from the audience’s interpretations of the doe-eyed priest’s consistently forlorn expression. Perhaps they view it as the external representation of a soul under extreme duress, and his quiet nature - in the face of constant criticism - as one who is always ready to accept a confession without judgment. They might just as well read his face as that of a man constantly suffering from flatulence and his quiet nature as just another aspect of his sissy-girl personality. Who really knows what they think?

This is a film, depending on your perspective, of either sublime subtlety or hack crap where some director throws a crybaby in our face for two hours and expects us to weep about it; I’m in the former camp. Personally I believe DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST is a brilliant piece of work about human nobility and strength surviving in the face of extreme adversity. As our hero’s physical condition weakens and his soul suffers its own torments, including an inability to pray and a loss of faith, his outward actions remain consistently in tune with the responsibilities of his profession. He refuses to shut his door to those who mock him, he helps a distraught woman overcome her grief and find solace in her final days, and while his accomplishments are small he never once asks or attempts to receive any sort of reward or accolade. This is in direct contrast to his elders, who expect a priest to be more of a social butterfly or stern taskmaster.

In many of the reviews I’ve come across, including Criterion’s own liner notes, the film is touted as the story of a failure, in that the priest never accomplishes anything. I couldn’t disagree more. If a priest who constantly turns the other cheek, stands fast at his post even when doubt and illness rot his body, and goes out on a limb to help those in need is a failure, well we need a few more of those.

DVD Extras: The Criterion DVD is equipped with a theatrical trailer and a commentary track by Peter Cowie, a film historian and not somebody directly involved with the film’s production. He’s British and possesses one of those commanding voices that hold one enthralled while he compares the film to his favorite martini.

AH