Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Léon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961)
Cast: Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Irène Tunc, Nicole Mirel, Gisele Grimm, Monique Hennessy. Screenplay: Jean-Pierre Melville, based on a novel by Béatrix Beck. Cinematography: Henri Decaë. Art direction: Daniel Guéret. Film editing: Jacqueline Meppiel, Nadine Marquand, Marie-Josèph Yoyotte. Music: Marital Solal, Albert Reiser.
The “hot priest” trope got a brief revival recently in the series Fleabag, when Andrew Scott and Phoebe Waller-Bridge struck a few sparks together in an amusing flirtation. Otherwise, priests have had a bad rep in the media since the news broke about widespread clerical sexual abuse. We have to go back to Jean-Pierre Melville's Léon Morin, Priest in 1961 to find a serious and unsensational treatment of the moral crisis that clerical celibacy can foment. It's a story set during the German occupation of France during World War II, in which a young woman (Emmanuelle Riva) finds herself attracted to a young priest (Jean-Paul Belmondo). It's a richly developed story in which faith, sexuality, and politics converge, made more intriguing by the performances of Riva and Belmondo, who vividly portray not only the sexual tension but also the intellectual and spiritual questions provoked by the encounter.
Léon Morin (Léon Morin, Priest), Patrick McKenna (Angels and Demons), and Lenny Belardo (The Young Pope).
Rating your hot priests
Léon Morin- The only one from this list that I had only heard of, not seen. Immediate impression, VERY pretty, I'll give him an 8/10 for attractiveness. I read up a brief synopsis and it seems like there's a bit of yearning there, which is the best part of a hot priest. I'll give the yearn factor an 8.5/10
Patrick McKenna- One of my favorites. Ewan McGregor was one of my first celebrity crushes so 10/10 there. Not really a yearning factor here, but! There is a corruption factor, which is a solid replacement. 8.5/10 because lack of yearning.
Lenny Belardo- I haven't seen much of young pope, so I'm going off of synopsis again. It's Jude Law, who is definitely handsome, but not as much my type as the others so 8.5/10. There does appear to be SOME yearning, but he loses points for some homophobia and disgust of hedonism, a 6.5/10.
Yeah, Léon Morin, Priest has some interesting dialogue concerning Christian faith, but let's be real here: I watched it and rewatched it just so I could ogle Jean-Paul Belmondo's character and I make no apologies for that.