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S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Forgiven Sinner" or "Leon Morin prete" or "Leon Morin, Priest")

directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
France 1961

Aiming successfully for a wider audience in 1961, the neglected French independent Jean-Pierre Melville (Les enfants terribles, Le samourai) adapted Beatrix Beck's autobiographical novel, set in a French village during World War II, about a young woman falling in love with a handsome, radical young priest who's fully aware of his power over her. For the starring roles Melville, godfather of the New Wave, ironically selected two talented actors catapulted to fame by that movement--Hiroshima, mon amour's Emmanuele Riva and Breathless's Jean-Paul Belmondo. The poetic results are literary and personal; the heroine's offscreen narration suggests the pre-Bressonian form of Melville's first feature, Le silence de la mer, and sudden subjective shots convey the woman's physical proximity to the priest as she undergoes an ambiguous religious conversion. Not an unqualified success, the film remains strong for its performances, its inventive editing and framing, and its evocative rendering of the French occupation. According to Melville, the film ran for 193 minutes in its prerelease form; he edited out 65 minutes, and another 18 minutes are missing from the present version. The eclectic and resourceful nonjazz score is by jazz pianist Martial Solal.

Excerpt from Jonathan Rosenbaum's  capsule on the Chicago Reader located HERE

Jean-Paul Belmondo delivers a subtly sensual performance in the hot-under-the-collar Léon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, prêtre), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The French superstar plays a devoted man of the cloth who is desired by all the women of a small village in Nazi-occupied France. He finds himself most drawn to a sexually frustrated widow—played by Emmanuelle Riva—a religious skeptic whose relationship with her confessor turns into a confrontation with both God and her own repressed desire. A triumph of mood, setting, and innuendo, Léon Morin, Priest is an irreverent pleasure from one of French cinema’s towering virtuosos.

Poster

Theatrical Release: March - 1961 - France

Reviews                                                                    More Reviews                                                        DVD Reviews

 

Comparison:

BFI -  Region 2 - PAL vs. Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray vs. Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray RIGHT

 

Box Cover

   

 

Distribution BFI - Region 2 - PAL Criterion Collection, spine #572 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Kino

Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Runtime 1:52:12 (4% PAL Speedup) 1:57:43.681 2:08:33.706
Video

1.66:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.22 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 43,969,862,503 bytes

Feature: 34,515,554,304 bytes

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Total Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 46,542,925,341 bytes

Feature: 37,348,454,400 bytes

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Total Video Bitrate: 34.94 Mbps

 

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

 

Bitrate: Criterion Blu-ray

 

Bitrate: Kino Blu-ray

 

Audio French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby)  LPCM Audio French 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit

DTS-HD Master Audio French 1556 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1556 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

Subtitles English English and none English and none
Features

Release Information:
Studio: BFI Video Publishing

Aspect Ratio:
Original aspect Ratio 1.66:1

Edition Details:

• Commentary by French film expert Prof. Ginette Vincendeau
• 4:3 Trailer (3:03)
• Director's Biography (3:16)
• Interview with assistant director Volker Schlöndorff (4:3 -  13:12)
• Introduction by Ginette Vincendeau (21:18)
• Acknowledgements


DVD Release Date:
April 26th, 2004
Transparent Keep Case
Chapters: 20

Release Information:
Studio: Criterion

 

1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 43,969,862,503 bytes

Feature: 34,515,554,304 bytes

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Total Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps

 

Edition Details:
French television interview with director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo from 1961 (4:45)
Selected-scene commentary - Chapters 1-2 (9:30), 6-7 (11:15), 17-20 (14:29) by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau
Original theatrical trailer (3:10)

2 Deleted Scenes (1:21+ 2:52)
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic and novelist Gary Indiana and excerpts from Melville on Melville

 

Blu-ray Release Date: July 26th, 2011
Transparent Blu-ray Case

Chapters 22

Release Information:
Studio:
Kino

 

1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 46,542,925,341 bytes

Feature: 37,348,454,400 bytes

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Total Video Bitrate: 34.94 Mbps

 

Edition Details:
• 
Audio Commentary by Filmmaker and Historian Mike Siegel
• The Demon Within Him: Interview with Assistant Director Volker Schlöndorff (29:33)
• Master Class with Philippe Labro & Rémy Grumbach – Documentary (1:01:06)
• 24 heures de la vie d'un clown – Short Film Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (18:47)
• Theatrical Trailer (3:15)

Blu-ray Release Date: July 2nd, 201
9
Standard Blu-ray case

Chapters 8

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - (July 2019) - The New Kino is advertised as "A 4K Restoration of the Original 128-Minute Director’s Cut!". It, indeed, runs 11-minutes longer than the 2011 Criterion BD release. There are a few version running from 1:55:00 - 2:10:00. This 1080P image is brighter than the Criterion and there is a slight shift in the 1.66:1 frame with the Kino, generally showing more information although this can slightly vary from sequence to sequence. I don't find it overly bright and looks excellent on my system. The grain is beautifully exported and I think I prefer this 4K restoration viewing to the older, and now out-of-print, Criterion Blu-ray.

Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track in original French language (16-bit.) Criterion advance with their linear PCM at 24-bit although few might notice the difference in the authentically flat track. Martial Solal (Melville's Two Men in Manhattan aka Deux hommes dans Manhattan, Godard's Breathless etc.) does the score - one of only 15 composition credits. It sounds very good although I always not the extensive pauses in the film more than the subtle music. There are optional English subtitles (see sample) and the Blu-ray disc is Region 'A'-locked.

Kino include a full length audio commentary by Filmmaker and Historian Mike Siegel (some may recall from his 2005 film "Passion & Poetry: The Ballad of Sam Peckinpah") He has done quite a few commentaries but only a handful in English. He is German and has an accent, only very occasionally, struggling with English and it wasn't a distraction and he makes some decent points in regards to the production, Melville, and much more (it is over 2-hours) and he doesn't focus on production details. As in Le Doulos we get The Demon Within Him - a 1/2 hour interview with Volker Schlöndorff. It is the same supplement where he recounts the film and his participation noting details about Melville. Fans may enjoyed the hour-long Master Class Jean-Pierre Melville with Philippe Labro & Rémy Grumbach de-constructing many of the director's scenes. Also included is Jean-Pierre Melville's 1946 19-minute short 24 heures de la vie d'un clown – described as "A day in the life of Beby the clown. Filmed between shows at Circus Medrano, at home and in the streets of Paris, with his faithful partner and friend the clown Maïss." Lastly. is a theatrical trailer for Leon Morin, Priest and other Melville films.

A less typical Melville film but brilliantly crafted and an interesting tale with toned down sexual impulses always prevalent between the priestly-garbed Belmondo and wholesome looking Emmanuelle Riva. Leon Morin, Priest is a fabulous viewing experience of love, survival, conflict... The longer running Kino Blu-ray with its 4K restoration and optional commentary gets our highest recommendation - even for those already owning the Criterion.

***

ADDITION: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - July 11': Criterion maintain the 1.66:1 aspect ratio in their 1080P transfer. It looks improved beside the out-of-print BFI SD release from 2004. There is more information in the frame, far more textured grain is readily present and detail and contrast are elevated to more film-like levels. The strong and damage free Criterion Blu-ray image is darker making the BFI look slightly brightness boosted.

Criterion again opt for the faithful mono audio using a linear PCM track at 1152 Kbps. Not that there was any problem with the BFI but dialogue does seem more audible. Criterion have added optional English subtitles - exporting a different translation than the BFI but supporting the same intent. The Criterion is, as always, region 'A'-locked.

Criterion extras are not as stacked as we have seen in the past and don't quite eclipse the BFI in the supplement area. We get a brief French television interview with director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo from 1961 for less than 5-minutes in HD, and the same selected-scene commentary in Chapters 1-2 (9:30), 6-7 (11:15), 17-20 (14:29) by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau (still love that voice) author of Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris, an original theatrical trailer for 3-minutes also in HD, plus 2 short deleted Scenes - together running les than 5-minutes. There is an enclosed booklet featuring an essay by critic and novelist Gary Indiana and excerpts from Melville on Melville.

Supposedly the film was originally, but rarely longer version and parsed down at some stage to the cut we have on digital editions. This remains an excellent film and a Blu-ray we can strongly recommend! 

***

ON THE BFI DVD: The picture quality seems even better than Le Doulos. Shows a lot of good film grain and fairly tight anamorphic picture quality. I couldn't remove the English subtitles but suspect that it might have been my player - regardless they are clear and "Criterion-like". Exact same extras as in Le Doulos, but , of course, a different commentary and trailer. A very well done DVD by the BFI!  out of    

Gary W. Tooze


Recommended Reading in French Cinema (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

The Films in My Life
by Francois Truffaut, Leonard Mayhew

French Cinema: A Student's Guide
by Philip Powrie, Keith Reader
Agnes Varda by Alison Smith Godard on Godard : Critical Writings by Jean-Luc Godard Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 2)
by James Quandt
The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau French New Wave
by Jean Douchet, Robert Bonnono, Cedric Anger, Robert Bononno
French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present
by Remi Fournier Lanzoni
Truffaut: A Biography by Antoine do Baecque and Serge Toubiana

Check out more in "The Library"


 Menus

 

1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray RIGHT

 

 

 

 

Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

 


CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

Subtitle Sample

1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 


1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 


1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 


1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 


1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 


1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


1) BFI - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray BOTTOM

 


 

More Criterion Blu-ray Captures

 

 

 Box Cover

   

 

Distribution BFI - Region 2- PAL Criterion Collection, spine #572 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Kino

Region 'A' - Blu-ray



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