Diary of a Country Priest (The Criterion Collection)
by Robert Bresson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: André Guibert, Claude Laydu, Jean Riveyre, Nicole Maurey, Rachel BérendtDirector: Robert Bresson
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-03
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Diary of a Country Priest (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: EXCELLENT REISSUE BY CRITERION OF THIS ESSENTIAL VIEWING FOR ANY CATHOLIC OR ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING
Summary: 5 Stars
Certainly the novel by Georges Bernanos entitled Journal d'un cure de campagne created its alarm in its day as it exposed some of the less spiritual and more secular realities of society, and yet it is a deeply insightful and still troubling examination of a young priest struggling to live with spiritual authenticity his difficult vocation as a diocesan priest in a strange cold town while slowly dying of stomach cancer.
Fortunately Bernanos portrays this priest as a gifted and careful writer who maintains an intimate diary. Therefore this novel, in the old style of Liaisons Dangerueses, presents its narrative in the guise of discovered records now published. It is therefore impossible to film.
Yet Bresson does so admirably and faithfully and sincerely, and with great talent, technique and wisdom. Thankfully the great Criterion offers us a wonderful reprint restored very recently by which we may view again and again this wonderful, subtle, moving film. My only choking point of course are the subtitles which go invisible against a white background and appear so intrusively against the black background of the young asthetic priest's pre-Vatican cassock, but then the French for the most part is spoken so slowly and carefully that we can follow the original with practice, which is always for the best in any case. It is also accompanied by the priest clearly chronicling in his journal the words we hear repeated, as we watch him write across the big screen, and thus this film from the start graciously supplies its own subtitles in the original.
One great advanatge of this Criterion edition is the brilliant commentary. For once this is helpful, unlike for example the ubiquitous Mr. Carpenter in similar overdubbed commentaries, where the speaker mumbles like someone who believes they know much and actually parrot inanities which make you want to reach forward to the cinema seat before you and shyly demand their silence. Here the optional commentary as said before is brilliant, helpful, gracious, utterly informative and thought provoking, including when the nephew of the Count speaks of his fleeing for the Foreign Legion and the commentator draws a parallel explicitly to the current rush to war in Iraq with the grotesquely heretical hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers!"
Every Catholic should see this film to remember life before the Second Vatican Council, in the time between the two wars, and the loneliness of our parish priets in their spiritual struggle as quasi-hermits in the wilderness. It is a delight to see the old vestments, kissed at the embrodiered cross, and to hear the Latin blessing with proper gestures. It is interesting to see the villagers's presuming our contemporary infamous evil in the priest's regard for the little girls he prepares for First Holy Communion.
The commentator again provides useful information regarding the actor's preparation for this role. Yet as with any commentary no matter how excellent, we can neer take it as the last word. Indeed, we may read the young dying priest as archetype for the death of a way of life in the light of coming technological wonders and a new way of life. In another century he would have died alone slowly like a dog, as portrayed here, offering up his suffering and physical pain. Then we see him crossing the huge new train station in Lille struck by wonder and revelation as if in a modern secular cathedral. Surely this epiphany opens us to a jungian reading. It must at least bring us to reach for this amazon's access to old copies of Bernanos and associated commentaries as cited by Critierion's delightfully informative commentator.
Truly this is a film which merits a place in your DVD and/or theological library. More than five stars.
Summary of Diary of a Country Priest (The Criterion Collection)
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