Léon Morin, Priest

Melville built this out of his own war. He had been in the French Resistance and knew the Occupation from inside, and he called Béatrix Beck's Goncourt-winning novel the most accurate picture he had read of French life under it. A widowed communist with no faith goes to church to make fun of it and meets Léon Morin, who is not what she expected: young, intelligent, willing to argue and dangerously attractive. Nothing between them ever happens; they only talk, and the tension accumulates entirely in what is not said. The bravest decision is the casting. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the priest, one year after Breathless, which is the exact opposite choice. The film's sexual charge comes directly from that contradiction: the audience sees Belmondo on screen while the character remains unreachable. Emmanuelle Riva plays Barny. Who it is for: viewers who like films about faith, desire and repression made almost entirely of dialogue. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a Melville crime film. There are no guns, the pace is low, and it plays as though the whole thing happens in one room.