Léon Morin, Priest12A

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville | France | 1961 | 1h 55m | French w/ English subtitles | Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Emmanuelle Riva, Irène Tunc

In Nazi-occupied France, a devoted priest finds himself drawn to a young, sexually frustrated widow whose relationship with God has entirely diminished. Jean-Paul Belmondo delivers an astutely sensual performance as the hot-under-the-collar man of the cloth in Jean-Pierre Melville’s triumph of atmosphere and innuendo.

Reviews

‘Miraculous cinema, even for heretics.’
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

‘A poetic, spiritual film exploring with elegance and simplicity the great human dilemmas in the context of one of 20th Century’s France’s greatest challenges — the Occupation.’
Film4

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Léon Morin, Priest between October 17, 2021 and October 20, 2021.

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What else is on?

Today (Sunday 29th March)

14:00

My Night at Maud's PG
1h 50m | French w/ English subtitles
A devout Catholic engineer’s orderly life is unsettled by an intimate, chance encounter with Maud, a confident divorcée. As philosophy, desire, and morality collide, Jean-Louis Trintignant shines in Éric Rohmer’s most celebrated Six Moral Tales film.

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16:30

Sound of Falling 18
2h 35m | German w/ English subtitles
Across the twentieth century four teenage girls spend their youth in the same farmhouse decades apart, yet their lives echo each other. German director Mascha Schilinski interweaves generations of girlhood, revealing loneliness and lost innocence across a turbulent century.

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19:45

The President's Cake 12A
1h 45m | Arabic w/ English subtitles
During 1990s Iraq, schoolgirl Lamia is chosen by her class to bake a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein. With her pet rooster beside her she searches the town for ingredients in an award-winning debut about childhood resilience and life under dictatorship.

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Tomorrow (Monday 30th March)

18:00

My Night at Maud's PG
1h 50m | French w/ English subtitles
A devout Catholic engineer’s orderly life is unsettled by an intimate, chance encounter with Maud, a confident divorcée. As philosophy, desire, and morality collide, Jean-Louis Trintignant shines in Éric Rohmer’s most celebrated Six Moral Tales film.

Book here

20:30

Sirāt 15
1h 54m | Spanish, French & Arabic w/ English subtitles
Oliver Laxe’s intense, hallucinatory road movie follows a father and son through Morocco as they try to find a missing relative at various sprawling, illegal raves. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival 2025.

Book here


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Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!