Diary of a Country Priest

Saw Diary of a Country Priest, a film about an effete young priest's relationship with his faith. He starts off full of zeal in a small country parish. Soon however he becomes embroiled in the domestic affairs of the local rich-guy and converts his invalid wife just before she dies. He convinces her to stop her eternal mourning of her dead son as this is transparent idolatry. She casts his portrait into the fire. Soon locals are murmuring that his cruel uncompromising approach resulted in her death. This version of events is made stronger by a cruel little girl who saw parts of the showdown. Soon the priest is openly reviled by the populace, a martyr to his beliefs.

However, there is a subtle (possibly imaginary!) counter-narrative going on: all of this is reported by the diary of the priest. He quickly establishes himself as an unreliable narrator. Sections of his diary are blotted out, censored, and rewritten. At one point he narrates that he fell instantly to sleep while we see him blinking up at the ceiling, eyes wide open. In the first few scenes, he reports that he eats only bread soaked in sweetened wine. This obviously religious diet struck me as overzealous and mad. He reports that he's often light-headed and it is little wonder. His zeal, we see, is the cause of his weakness. At one point he visits an older, wiser neighboring priest who is hale and fat. His pragmatic wisdom lacks the fiery passion of the young priest, but at least it is not killing him.

The protagonist swoops about in a black cape, mooning and swooning like a Lovecraft hero. He seems to be able to communicate best with the local teenage girls. During his showdown with the invalid wife, he narrates (via the diary) that she was terrifying and "imperious," that he was backed against a wall, leaning on it for support. He consistently reports himself as being weak, trembling, faint, as though he could buy the moral high-ground with his health. He clearly seeking martyrdom of some kind. When the inevitable victimization comes, he does not say one word in his own defense. He is working through some kind of intense religious mania and unfortunately he's doing it alone, in the country, surrounded by people who are completely nonplussed by his theatrics.

However, all of this could be imaginary. I may be reading too much into mere bread and wine. The overt storyline of the priest's and the counter-plot which is only hinted at flicker back and forth like an optical illusion. I found the film fairly morbid. The intrigue really comes down to what we think of the priest. Do we buy his version of saintly martyrdom at the hands of small minds, or do we side with the locals, marvelling at his self-serving illusions? It's interesting stuff. Not terribly entertaining (there's no car-chases and not a single boob to be seen) but it's sort of chilly-ly fascinating.