Diary of a Country Priest

This starkly beautiful tale of a young dying priest achieves a sense of cinematic spirituality on a par with Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc. The first fully Bressonian film is an adaptation of the celebrated novel by Georges Bernanos (Mouchette and Under the Sun of Satan) in which some non-actors (models), natural sound, pared-down images and real locations are used to externalise the solitude and inner anguish of the characters. Bresson’s exquisitely stylised direction marks one of the finest literary adaptations ever made. A core influence on the writing and direction of Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver).