Leon Morin, Pretre

1961, Jean-Pierre Melville
Belmondo here stars in this atmospheric piece. Melville again opts for short scenes and long takes. He is happy to shoot long shots, and then to move in, reframe as the movement continues. There are also a number of occassions where there are sudden quick cuts, or something thrown at the screen (the slap). These, along with lines of dialogue that are frankly very funny, surely extremely lewd for the time, and very honest, still create a slight air of playfulness.
One can see why Melville was key for the new wave; this is clearly a personal film, down to the subjective slant taken on events, and the lack of willingness to try and sum up the resistance in a wider narrative; no, this is just one woman's story, with an ambiguous and really unexplained relationship to anything outside the film.
The debate reaches a level of intelligence, which is refreshing, and the directness and physicality of the acting (the woodaxe) gives a constant feeling of vitality, laconic as it is. A more than decent work.