Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

Claude Laydu: Priest of Ambricourt (Curé d'Ambricourt)

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [subtitled version] 

  Countess : Love is stronger than death. Your scriptures say so.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : We did not invent love. It has its order, its law.

  Countess : God is its master.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : He is not the master of love. He is love itself. If you would love, don't place yourself beyond love's reach.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : I said to her, "Peace be with you," and she'd received that peace on her knees. What wonder, that one can give what one doesn't possess! Oh, miracle of our empty hands!

• Curé d'Ambricourt : I was so disappointed I had to lean against the wall.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : The simplest tasks are by no means the easiest.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : Our hidden sins poison the air that others breathe.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : Blessed be the sin that teaches us shame.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  Behind me, there was no longer familiar daily life from which one escapes with a single bound. Behind me there was nothing. And in front of me, a wall. A black wall.

• Chantal : I want everything. I'll try everything. I may be young, but I know lots of people die before succeeding. Even if life disappoints me, too bad. I will sin for sin's sake.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : That's when you will find God.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  What wouldn't I have given this morning for a word of compassion or kindness.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : Where have I gone wrong?

  Curé de Torcy : You fidget about too much. You look like a hornet in a bottle.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  Suddenly, God granted me the revelation through the old mentor's lips, that nothing could tear me from the place eternally chosen for me, that I was a prisoner of His Agony.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  Dawn's deliverance is always sweet. Blessed are the mornings. I pray better.

• Chantal : Do you have some secret?

  Curé d'Ambricourt : A lost secret. You'll find it, and lose it again. Others will pass it on after you.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : In your shoes, if I'd broken my ordination vows, I'd rather it had been for a woman's love, than what you call your intellectual evolution.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  Youth is a blessing, a risk to run. Even the risk is a blessing.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  Awful night. No sooner had I shut my eyes than sadness overwhelmed me.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  I wanted to say something about his cabaret. He holds a dance every Sunday. He calls it the Family Ball. It attracts even the young girls whom the boys enjoy getting drunk.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : What madness.

  Countess : Forgive me.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : God is no torturer. He wants us to be merciful with ourselves.

  Countess : What's done is done. I can't help it now.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : Peace be with you.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : Are you eager to take Communion?

  Séraphita Dumontel : No.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : Why not?

  Séraphita Dumontel : It will come when it will.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : But you understand. You listen so carefully.

  Séraphita Dumontel : It's because you have lovely eyes.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  I reproach myself for praying so little or so poorly. But have I the time to pray?

• Curé d'Ambricourt : [voiceover]  Oh, wonder - to be able to give what we ourselves do not possess. Oh miracle of our empty hands.

• Curé d'Ambricourt : You don't bargain with God. You yield to Him unconditionally. But I assure you, there aren't separate realms for the living and the dead, just the Kingdom of God and we are in it.

• Curé de Torcy : Avoid the daughter. She's a fiend.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : I won't shut my door to her. Or anyone else, as long as I'm the priest of this parish.

• Chantal : May I ask what you think of me?

  Curé d'Ambricourt : A priest has no opinion.

• Femme de ménage : You must think poorly of me. The room's a mess. Everything's dirty. You see, I leave for work at 5 AM. And I'm not very strong either.

  Curé d'Ambricourt : What do you do?

  Femme de ménage : I'm a cleaning woman.