Title: The Passion of Joan of Arc
Release Date: April 21, 1928
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Production Company: Société Générale des Films
Summary/Review:
This is a movie about faces. Renée Jeanne Falconetti, in her only film role, stars as the French heroine of the Hundred Years War who thinks she’s 19. This is a silent film, for her eyes express her fear, wonder, and faith. Meanwhile, her judges’ faces are often shot from below, appearing grotesque, deceitful, and cruel.
The movie begins in an archives showing the actual trial records of Joan of Arc that the movie is based upon. Joan is interrogated, tortured, deceived, and ultimately put to death by an ecclesiastical court of French clergy loyal to the English invaders. Joan of Arc is notably burned at the stake, and that is shockingly depicted on film, but outside that gratuitous detail this is a personal, intimate depiction of the great woman’s final hours.
By the way, I only just learned a fascinating historical tidbit: Joan of Arc was only canonized as a saint in 1920, just a few years before this movie was made.
Rating: ****
Panorama of the Mountains 