#beatrix beck

Léon Morin, prêtre was released in France on 22 September 1961.

Based on Béatrix Beck‘s 1952 novel of the same name, Jean-Pierre Melville’s adaptation starred 28-year-old Jean-Paul Belmondo (who had just become an international “heartthrob”) as a priest (although Melville argued the paradox was exactly the point: “The main idea,” Melville told an interviewer, “was to show this amorous priest who likes to excite girls but doesn’t sleep with them”).

Produced by Georges de Beauregard and Carlo Ponti, Léon Morin, prêtre was Melville’s first film with a large budget, which he hoped would give him mainstream attention after years of independent filmmaking (“I made it for the producer and the mass audience” Melville said. “I’ve had enough of being an auteur maudit, a maverick who can’t be trusted”).