Under the Sun of Satan

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival—where its victory was greeted with more than a bit of controversy—Maurice Pialat’s searing adaptation of a novel by Georges Bernanos stars Gérard Depardieu as a priest in the throes of a moral and spiritual crisis who channels his torment into saving the soul of a pregnant teenager (Sandrine Bonnaire) who has murdered her lover. Depardieu’s visceral performance and Pialat’s rigorous style come together to create an intense, shattering exploration of faith, sin, and salvation.