(LEON MORIN, PRÊTRE, Jean-Pierre Melville, France 1961, 116 min., French/subtitles)

Eight years before he made Army of Shadows, masterful director Melville made this more contemplative, erotically charged drama also set during the German occupation of France. Legendary Gallic actor Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as the title character, the young and handsome confessor to an atheist widow (Emmanuelle Riva of Hiroshima, Mon Amour), who begins moving closer to God…or is it the priest? Thoughtful and deeply spiritual, Leon Morin is one of the most unjustly overlooked of French New Wave movies. “Melville’s depiction of wartime France is peerless”—Richard Brody, The New Yorker.