André Bazin
"Diary of a Country Priest" was a financial success in France and established Bresson's international reputation as a major film director. Film critic André Bazin wrote an entire essay on the film, calling it a masterpiece "because of its power to stir the emotions, rather than the intelligence." Claude Laydu's debut performance in the title role has been described as one of the greatest in the history of film. Jean Tulard, in his "Dictionary of Film", wrote of him in this work, "No other actor deserves to go to heaven as much as Laydu."