Diary of a country pastor

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Movie
German title Diary of a country pastor
Original title Journal d′un Curé de Campagne
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1951
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Robert Bresson
script Robert Bresson
production Léon Carré
music Jean-Jacques Grunenwald
camera Léonce-Henri Burel
Robert Juillard
cut Paulette Robert
occupation

Diary of a country pastor (original title: Journal d′un Curé de Campagne ) is a French drama film directed by Robert Bresson from 1951. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos . Many passages of the book have been taken literally. In 1936 Bernano's work received the Grand Prix du Roman of the Académie française . The film was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951.

action

A young pastor is transferred to Ambricourt , a bitterly poor and backwoods rural community in the Artois . He believes that he can lead people back to their beliefs and create a religious center in his community. However, he is not welcome among the villagers. They are overwhelmed and with his almost fanatical manner he achieves exactly the opposite of what he wanted. People are withdrawing more and more from him. He also tries in vain for the children of the village, who mock him behind his back. He is particularly saddened that even Séraphita, a student from whom he had promised a lot, is participating.

Always alone with himself and his thoughts, he quarrels with himself that he is unable to bring his view of things closer to others. He keeps a diary in which he notes all his thoughts, doubts and hopes, but also his great suffering and pain. He sums up wealth and poverty, and he also writes down his reflections on sins and confession. His diary also contains the gloomy sentence: “In me is night”. The young priest is repeatedly plagued by unbearable pain. Since he only eats sugar, bread and cheap wine, the rumor spreads in the village that he is a drinker. His colleagues do not believe in his ascetic way of life either. His family had repeated problems with alcoholics. The young pastor, however, dips his bread in wine in order to keep reminding himself of the Lord's Supper . He only confides in an elderly pastor from the neighboring parish of Torcy , but he cannot implement the advice he gives him.

The pastor, the doctor of the village and friend of the pastor of Torcy Delbende, tries in vain to assist him in his deep crisis of faith. The doctor chooses suicide. Since the young priest got along so badly with the villagers, he went to the gentlemen in the nearby castle, but met with rejection there too. The lord of the castle is not interested in helping him and his wife, the countess, has withdrawn completely since the untimely death of her son many years ago and is not even able to look after her daughter Chantal. The girl grows up lonely without the attention of her father and mother. Chantal feels torn between wanting to love his parents and hating them. Knowing that her father is having a relationship with her private tutor Miss Louise makes the situation even more difficult for her. She tries to get the pastor to chase Louise out of the castle, but has no success. Louise also fails in the attempt to get the pastor on her side. Now she wants to get rid of him at all costs and even goes so far as to write an anonymous threatening letter.

At first the pastor from Ambricourt does not succeed in releasing the countess from her lethargy . Though he has strong, unwavering faith, he has no experience in worldly matters. On the contrary, he takes so much part in the grief of the countess that he himself is weakened by it. His illness is gaining power over his already emaciated body even faster. The countess only opens up to him late in conversation. She senses that the pastor is taking on her great sadness and throws the picture of her dead son into the fire. That same night the countess died of a heart attack. However, she left the pastor a thank you letter.

Chantal spreads half-truths in the village about the last conversation between her mother and the pastor. Although he could refute the allegations with this letter, he refuses to justify himself. Now there is no one left in the village who wants to have anything to do with him. The elderly pastor from Torcy speaks up for him in vain. Meanwhile, the young pastor's pain has worsened. One night he collapses in the palace gardens on the way to the church and is later found by Séraphita. He lost blood. When he visits a doctor in Lille , the doctor tells him that he has end-stage stomach cancer . So he goes to Louis Dufrety, a friend from the seminary. He asks him to call the pastor in Torcy. The young clergyman dies a little later. His last words are: “Everything is grace.” The pastor of Torcy prays for him; the end shows a gray cross.

reception

The film, shot in 1950, premiered in France on February 7, 1951 . It started in the Federal Republic of Germany on April 8, 1952.

Filming locations were the castle and school of Équirre (the castle was destroyed in a fire in 1984), the area around Hesdin and Torcy , all in the Pas-de-Calais department , France. The film was shot from March 6th to June 19th, 1950.

In France, the film was not only a financial success and established Robert Bresson's international reputation as an important director. The important French film critic André Bazin dedicated an essay to the film and said, "The diary of a country pastor is a masterpiece also because of its power to stir emotions". Bazin pointed out to the young directors the possibilities of filming literature that go beyond mere adaptations. He explicitly referred to Bresson's film Diary of a Country Pastor , “which reflects the quality of Bernanos' book”. "Fortunes of this kind" are "of course rare in film history."

The film begins with seeing a hand writing something in a (day) book, accompanied by the monotonous melody of a voice. In this film, Bresson already used the repetition technique, which he also often used in his other films. The separation of image and sound was also a feature of his films. In the entire film we do not learn the name of the country pastor from Ambricourt.

Martin Scorsese's film drama Taxi Driver is said to have been largely inspired by Robert Bresson's portrait of the pastor in a country pastor's diary . The character of his taxi driver Travis Bickle shows various similarities with the character of the country pastor. Both films address loneliness and isolation, obsession and unsatisfied longings. Both films employ the means of barreness and draw a slow portrait of unhappiness and loneliness. Even Ingmar Bergman's film Winter Light said to have been heavily inspired by Bresson's film. Bresson has worked with amateur actors often since a country pastor's diary . Claude Laydu, who played the country pastor, was a stage actor with little experience. The pastor of Torcy was played under a pseudonym by a prominent French psychiatrist, whose only film role it remained.

This film is currently only available on DVD in French with English subtitles.

criticism

“The inconspicuous existence of a young pastor in the small rural community of Ambricourt in Flanders, marked by mental struggle and cancer. A confessional monological film adaptation of a novel with great optical clarity and simplicity. Bresson describes the struggle of a Catholic Christian and priest for the grace of faith in a seemingly hopeless world. "

- Lexicon of international film

"The painter and director Robert Bresson (" Pickpocket ") depicts the inner workings of his characters in a credible way with poetic, condensing imagery and the renunciation of conventional drama. Conclusion: cinematic art is substantial, intense and honest.

- Cinema

"Robert Bresson's" Diary of a Country Pastor "is a depressingly realistic, slowly flowing and patience-demanding, unique masterpiece full of bitter tragedy, which stems from the absolute barreness of the images. The failure of human existence as an impressively intense character study of a melancholy priest who only wants what is good, but who has to understand that more is involved than just a good will in order to be able to achieve his goal. His devotion to God has only alienated him from people more and more until he has finally reached a point where he has to recognize himself that he knows nothing about people - but it is long too late to change that. "

- Movie reviews

Awards

The film won eight international awards including:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b diary of a country pastor at filmzentrale.com
  2. ^ Film review, 23rd year 1979, No. 5 André Bazin, review of the diary of a country pastor by Robert Bresson, ad French by Andrea Springler
  3. ↑ cit. from the diary of a country pastor at film-rezensions.de
  4. ↑ Diary of a Country Priest at Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
  5. ^ Diary of a country pastor. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 28, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ^ Diary of a country pastor at cinema.de
  7. ^ Diary of a country pastor at film-rezensions.de
  8. ^ Journal d′un Curé de Campagne at cineressources.net