User reviews

This is a very weird biography of a super-weird priest (at least by today's standards), Jean-Marie Baptiste Vianney. He was a saintly priest in the town of Ars during the first part of the 19th century. It's based, at times, on his writings and often the narrator quotes the man. It describes him in mostly positive terms--living a life of service, humility, prayer, fasting and sacrifice. He also was a supreme legalist--preaching that many of the normal behaviors of the congregation were evil. His legalism, at first, alienated him from the local Christians and they slowly began working to destroy him. But, because Vianney was so good (?), his great example and frequent self-flagellation (literal, not figurative lashings), folks began to feel guilty of their actions and began pouring into the church to the confessional. There, Vianney would often spend 10-12 hours a day taking confessions! In some ways, a very admirable guy and the narrator seems to take that tact. But many viewers today will get stuck on how severely Vianney beat himself and his legalism. Regardless, the film is never dull and is well made...but odd.

Jacques Demy directs this short documentary of the pastor of Ars in Auvergne. It's now a commune, but it had a long religious history, and this one concerns a pastor of rather strict habits, who railed against caberets and even village dances. ts, and the priest's room, bare except for a bed, religious icons, and the whip with which he used to beat himself.

It's a story of his efforts to be a vessel of G*d. He seems to have succeeded on his own terms. Demy's narration, neither approving nor disapproving, leaves the answer unknown.

Jean-Marie Vianney,Le Curé D'Ars became a saint and his family name "Vianney" became a first (Christian) name .As a former Sunday school pupil,I remember the day they showed us "Le Sorcier Du Ciel" by Marcel Blistène (1948).A dubious choice for nine -year-old brats for Vianney's fight against the Devil (represented by spooky noises) gave me goose flesh and at night I was afraid to switch off my lamp.

Demy's short has nothing to do with Blistène's (who said horror?) movie,for it's a simple documentary beginning with the fact that the holy man's body had remained intact when they opened his coffin,except for his face.

Although a Demy movie,it has nothing to do with Demy's feature films either.Very austere,very bleak,it is some kind of Bresson's work in miniature .Vianney was hated ,then adored by his flock ,who ,before he died ,stood in line in front of his confessional in which he spent half of his life.

Demy shows us a complex character:at first he appears as the humblest of all the creatures of God ,a male Bernadette Soubirous or Thérèse De Lisieux;then a demanding priest ,urging his villagers to repent ,which went against him and tarnished his image for a while (a girl even claimed she was pregnant by him);then a holy man who was praised to the skies by his whole congregation and well beyond..