Le Dialogue des Carmélites

Only Bresson, perhaps, could have done justice to Gertrud von le Fort's novel of Carmelite martyrdom during the French Revolution (already adapted for the stage by Bernanos and opera house by Poulenc). What it got instead was the ultra-static co-direction of Bresson's cinematographer (Agostini) and a fashionable 'literary' priest (Bruckberger). Though a potentially moving study of grace (in the most literal, theological sense) under pressure, neither of these qualities is very conspicuous in this pallid Sunday school picnic of a film.