Themes: Tortured Genius, Heroic Mission, Message From God
Main Cast: Renée Maria Falconetti, Eugène Silvain, Antonin Artaud, Ravet, Maurice Schutz, André Berley
Release Year: 1928
Country: FR
Run Time: 114 minutes
Plot
The Passion of Joan of Arc (La passion de Jeanne d'Arc) is widely regarded as Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's finest achievement and one of the greatest films of all time. Dreyer recreates the trial and execution of St. Joan with near-documentary authenticity, as if one were present at the actual 15th century event and both defendant and accusers were the genuine article. The director's use of huge, probing closeups--detailing every pockmark and even the saliva at the sides of the mouths--adds a shocking immediacy which makes it hard to believe that this film is nearly seventy years old. As Joan, Maria Falconetti (in her only film) transcends mere praise. Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film, but the original transcripts of Joan's trial are brilliantly conveyed by the pantomime of the actors. The film's title is supremely double-edged: Joan's "passion" is shown to be as erotic as it is spiritual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the undisputed masterpieces of cinema, Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc glows with the fervor of spiritual and aesthetic single-mindedness that is so intense it's almost blinding. With a script culled from the actual proceedings that led to Joan of Arc's burning at the stake, the movie seems an artifact from a lost time. Dreyer imagines the French saint's ordeal as an exalted passage to grace. Insisting that his actors not wear makeup, he captures images of indelible immediacy; Joan's sad, soulful eyes and the craggy faces of her leering inquisitors stay with you. The realism is as much emotional as it is physical. Recognizing that the truth of the story lay less in historical accuracy than in psychological nakedness, Dreyer paints an almost abstract march to martyrdom. The spare, blinding-white set seems stylized, as is Dreyer's high-pitched visual strategy, which relies heavily on close-ups. Frequently, you're left with little but a harsh cascade of them, with no wider shots to ground the action in a given space -- the drama literally transpires across the human face. Holding it all together is Renée Falconetti, in one of the great performances in film history. Her mournful eyes wide with rapture, Falconetti seems under a spell, as is the viewer by her. The performance was too great, so intense that Falconetti never returned in front of the camera again. The movie and her performance have since inspired imitations, most notably in the work of Danish director Lars von Trier, whose melodramas of female suffering seem almost tawdry by comparison. As influential as it is singular, The Passion of Joan of Arc remains many decades later an overwhelming experience and an undiminished tour de force. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
The film details the last hours of the life of Joan of Arc and takes place after she was captured by the English. It depicts her trial, imprisonment, torture, and execution much as a passion play would.
Written on her confession, Joan is referred to as Jehanne appelée La Pucelle, or "Joan, called The Virgin".
What especially stood out at the time when Passion was made was the film's camera-work and emphasis on the actors' facial features. Dreyer shot a great deal of the film in close-up and did not allow his actors to wear makeup, the better to tell the story through their expressions—this choice was made possible through use of the recently developed panchromatic film.[2]
Falconetti was commended for her multifaceted performance as Joan, which was her second and last film role.[3]
In 1999, American singer/songwriter Cat Power provided musical accompaniment at several screenings of the film in the U.S.
In 2003, Norwegian electronic music act Ugress released a limited edition CD entitled "La Passion De Jeanne D'Arc: Soundtrack to a silent movie.
On April 16, 2008, neo-classical/martial electronica group In The Nursery premiered a new sound track for the film at Sheffield Cathedral.
Danish composer Jesper Kyd was commissioned by Danish Film Festival founders Christian Ditlev Bruun and Lene Pels Jorgensen to provide a new score for the Danish Film Festival: Los Angeles.[7]
In 2009 the Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits wrote a score for small orchestra (for L´Ensemble De Basse-Normandie 2009/10 concert season) for this film.
Pauline Kael wrote that Falconetti's portrayal of Joan of Arc "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film."[3][8] However, it was banned in Britain for its portrayal of crude English soldiers who mock and torment Joan in scenes that mirror biblical accounts of Christ's mocking at the hands of Roman soldiers. The Archbishop of Paris was also critical, demanding changes be made to the film.[citation needed] Whether or not this request was honored in any way is unknown.
The original version of the film was lost for decades after a fire destroyed the master negative. Dreyer himself attempted to reassemble a version from out-takes and surviving prints, but he died believing his original cut was lost forever. In one of the most important discoveries in cinema history, a virtually complete print of Dreyer's original version was found in 1981 in a janitor's closet of an Oslo mental institution.[8] This version is now available on DVD.
Scenes from Passion appear in Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa Vie (1962), in which the protagonist Nana sees the film at a cinema and identifies with Joan. In Henry & JuneHenry Miller is shown watching the last scenes of the film and in voice-over narrates a letter to Anaïs Nin comparing her to Joan and himself to the "mad monk" character played by Antonin Artaud.
The Passion of Joan of Arc has appeared on Sight & Sound's top ten films poll three times:
1992: #10 (Critic's List) and #6 (Director's List)[11]
It placed 31st in the 2002 Director's Poll and 14th on the Critic's Poll. Maria Falconetti's performance was named the 26th greatest film portrayal of all time in Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time[12] giving her the highest ranking silent performance on the list. The film is currently sixteenth on the "1000 Greatest Films" of They Shoot Pictures Don't They? (a ranking based on votes by more than 1,600 critics, filmmakers, and film scholars). It was named by Art and Faith, an online group of critics, one of the "Top 100 Spiritually-Significant Films".[13] The Village Voice ranked it the eighth of the twentieth century in a 2000 poll of critics.[14]
Good Mothers (1942) ·Water from the Land (1946) ·The Struggle Against Cancer (1947) ·The Danish Village Church (1947) ·They Caught the Ferry (1948) ·Thorvaldsen (1949) ·The Storstrom Bridge (1950) ·The Castle Within the Castle (1955)
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