The Passion of Joan of Arc

With a well-chosen live musical accompaniment (applause for the BERG orchestra), even The Passion of Joan of Arc can be a riveting experience. This treatment of Joan’s suffering has, of course, an unwavering place in film history, and is just as naturally one of the most frequently adapted themes. However, it is precisely because of Dreyer's minimalist solution that the paradox of the interpretation of her unwavering faith rises a little more sharply to the surface. If I look back at the whole range of different projects, starting with Méliès and the Czech musical, as I have done so many times, I must single out Joan of Arc (1935) as unique among them all. (2012-03-16)

An unconventionally made film for its time, reveling in a large number of details of completely unvarnished faces to further emphasize the suffering and hopelessness of the situation depicted. The Passion of Joan of Arc is a timeless film that can appeal to today's viewer, thanks in particular to the cinematography and the excellent acting of Maria Falconetti. One of the jewels of the silent era of cinema, which still commands respect in today's over-modernised and digitised age. (2015-08-23)

We won't depart from the closeups of faces, from the extra raw emotions, and unfortunately also from depression for depression's sake, because we all know where the main heroine begins in the plot, what she will have to endure, and where she will be forced to go. But that's where my objections begin and end. For a nearly hundred-year-old film, I gaped at it in amazement for a whole hour and a half, as if it were some sacred icon, because it looks better in terms of actors, camera, or editing than films made decades later, which is unheard of and miraculous in the first half of the twentieth century. (2020-09-23)

A film that you can watch with various musical accompaniments because Dreyer himself never specified a definitive soundtrack version. My almost choral version from the original found in the 1980s in a lunatic asylum is incredibly grandiose and emotive. Dreyer lovingly captured the faces of individual actors through the camera, especially the actress playing Joan of Arc. Thanks to this, he managed to infuse the film with incredible expressionism, enhanced by the acting abilities of Maria Falconetti, who was primarily a theater actress. Don't expect an epic historical film, but rather a depiction of Joan's trial and her subsequent fate. (2014-07-14)

The narrative, based on close-up shots of exuberant characters, has an indescribable power thanks to the typologically precise cast and superb performances, as does the idiosyncratic direction at the intersection of several filmmaking movements and approaches of the time, but as the minutes tick by the magic wears off, and since it's clear how it all will end, the whole film seems more like a patient demonstration of contemporary directorial skill than a compelling story of fate. Anyway, the additional music is phenomenal. (2016-02-15)