Diary Of A Country Priest (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #30.1 extract: Diary Of A Country Priest (1951)

Truly magnificent, Diary of a Country Priest, whilst it is not Bresson's best film, submerges you into the anxious subconscious and existentially lost mind like few other films manage. 

Somewhat reminiscence of the later film The Man Who Sleeps, this is a narrative dominated by V.O. The manner in which Bresson has his latent imagery interact with the narration of our protagonist's diary then turns him into an epithet and a totem of 'himself'. As a shell of a man, played by an actor who is basically prevented from acting, our priest then becomes a child in a realm of adults, one who is in constant search for a graceful way to suffer through his days. But, as dismal and mundane as he becomes, there remains an unpretentious sense of significance to his journey, one that, in the Bressonian way, exudes a silent truth which some may be able to grasp as it seeps from the screen and take to heart.