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Even though I'm not a religious person at all, I'm still often quite fond or religious themed movies. They have a certain atmosphere and it often handles some intriguing themes, such as complete devotion, not just to the Lord but also to a certain cause.

Of course this movie is not just for everyone. I mean, hey, first of it all, it's French! It's shot completely in black & white and its slowly moving. But I will say that the it's never really a too hard of a movie to watch. This is mostly because the movie mostly keeps things real and doesn't ever exaggerate or gets overly complicated with any of its themes or emotions. In a way you could call this movie one that is being like a random slice of life, like so many movies used to be made of later on, in mostly France and Italy.

Even though the movie its slow, it still at all times remains an intriguing one to watch, which is all due to the way it got shot and directed by Robert Bresson. He lets the actors really tell the story and at the same time also make things work out all the better with the help of its visuals. It's a really beautifully shot movie, with some nice cinematography by Léonce-Henri Burel, who had basically been in the industry since the beginning. Obviously a guy with lots of experience with black & white cinematography. I also don't think he ever did a movie in color, not even during the later years of his career.

I like how the characters within the story get slowly developed and fleshed out and also how they all interact with each other. It's part of the reason why this feels like a realistic movie and story and not like one that tries to manipulate your feelings and emotions, or one that feels like it got based on a novel, while in fact it actually did got based on a novel, by Georges Bernanos.

Also of its acting feels very natural, which makes its characters work out, which in return also make its story and just overall movie work out. It's one of those movies that also deliberately used actors without any or too much experience. This can at times actually work against a movie but in this case it really worked out brilliantly.

No, I will admit that the movie its pace isn't always pleasant and the movie isn't always interesting to watch but overall it all, surprisingly, is still well worth it by the end.

8/10

About Frank Veenstra

Watches movies...writes about them...and that's it for now.
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