naif

After the Nazis were defeated, “Triumph of the Will” director Leni Riefenstahl, stripped of her Third Reich protections but saved from prison by a sympathetic tribunal, realized she’d need to become her greatest propaganda subject yet: selling the world that she was merely a persecuted naif taking a commission — someone who cared only about art, not politics.

“Pillion” isn’t judgmental, but it also doesn’t expect Melling’s naif to like everything his partner orders him to do.

The first four made a point of swapping directors and moods and even Ethan’s core identity: Brian De Palma made him a jaundiced naif; John Woo, a hot-blooded flirt; J.J.

The highfalutin parallel is to “Candide,” the classic 18th century novel about a naif who endures the horrors of civilization: chaos, selfishness, disease and destruction.

Even at 78, he remained the wonderstruck naif with a goodness so powerful it could transport all of us into another dimension.