The Unfrocked One

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Audience Member "Le défroqué" is a very strange but magnificent film, mostly due to the best acting performance of Pierre Fresnay. I never had seen, in my 72 years of life, such excellent acting, even better that Paul Scofield´s performance as Sir Tomas More in Fred Zinneman´s A Man for all Seasons (the second best). It is unusual to see a film where the performance of a single actor is so good that one can feel that the film would be of little interest, if any, without his presence. Despite a not outstanding direction - in fact, there are many scenes that seem to have been shooted too quickly and carelessly -, a seemingly low budget, a strange plot about a man who wants to take the place of a defrocked priest and another week points, the presence of Pierre Fresnay is so impressive that one gets shocked from the very begining to the terrible end. Actually the end could be considered even ridiculous if Fresnay would not be the one who plays the disturbed priest who returns to his duty by performing a crime. "Je suis Maurice Morand, prêtre catholique" ("I am Maurice Morand, a catholic priest") is said so convincingly that one may forget the madness that conducted to that unfortunate end. The other impressive thing this film has is a single scene in wich Morand - who despite being a defrocked one is still a priest - consecrates in a cabaret a huge amount of vine turning it into Christ´s blood. Gérard - the man that wants to return Morand to the Church or replace him by himself - has to drink it in order to avoid a sacrilege if it is spilled or simply left in the cabaret. He does so in mid of cheers and applauses from people who think that he is simply drinking three of four litters of vine winning an eventual bet. In next scene, the dialogue between Morand and a garbage collector is also remarkable. "Do you carry away men too?" asks Morand, who hates himself for what he has just done. "That would be too much work" is the smart answer. The rest of the film is not worth commenting but it is certainly worth seeing due to the very strong and strangely emotive atmosphere created all the time. "Le défroqué" is a very good film which I recommend it to all viewers - for good catholics it is mandatory - because it is a very rare jewell in film history. José Deym jdeym@fibertel.com.ar Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Unfrocked One

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