Mad Love

In 1959 a man found guilty of two killings is sent to the guillotine. The severed head falls into the basket, and from there the film is told in that head’s voice: he was a well liked country priest who had the trust of his parish and at the same time relationships with more than one woman. The account makes him neither a monster nor a victim; even speaking in his own voice he does not entirely understand what he did. Philippe Ramos’s hundred and seven minute French film was inspired by the case of the priest of Uruffe in France in the fifties and is the feature length version of his 1996 short Ici-bas. Melvil Poupaud, Diane Rouxel and Dominique Blanc appear; it was completed in 2015 and won the grand prize at the Montreal World Film Festival.