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The Passion of Joan of Arc
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780780022331
Format: Black & White, Dolby, Original recording remastered, NTSC
ISBN: 0780022335
Label: Homevision
Languages: English (Original Language),
Manufacturer: Homevision
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Homevision
Release Date: June 13, 2000
Running Time: 62 minutes
Studio: Homevision
Theatrical Release Date: 2028
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Editorial Review:
Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is as truly mythic as any film ever shot, its artistic achievement rivaled by its turbulent history. The focal point of controversy when released in 1928, the original film was lost for a half-century until an intact copy of Dreyer's original version was recovered in the early '80s.
Seeing Joan of Arc today remains a cinematic revelation, its approach to storytelling, set design, editing, and especially cinematography (by Rudolph Maté, who also shot Dreyer's visionary Vampyr) radical then, and still strikingly modern many decades later. Influenced by both German expressionist film and the French avant-garde, Dreyer's huge set was designed with asymmetrical doors, windows, and arches, through which Maté's camera moves along equally off-centered, even vertiginous, but fluid trajectories. Although the story is epic in its implications, the film is composed primarily of extreme close-ups, especially of Joan and her principal interrogator, Bishop Cauchon, and medium shots of small groups, often shot from low angles. Dreyer and Maté shot their cast in bright light, without makeup, giving each wrinkle, blemish, or tuft of hair sculptural detail.
For all its visual invention, however, Dreyer's film is most devastating in its central performance by Falconetti (née Renee Falconetti), a French stage actress who made her only screen appearance here--one critic Pauline Kael has suggested "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film." Through Falconetti, Joan's spiritual devotion, simple dignity, and suffering become utterly real; even without a dialogue track and only sparse inter-titles, the film achieves a fevered eloquence.
This meticulous restoration also includes composer Richard Einhorn's beautiful oratorio, Voices of Light, inspired by Dreyer's film and set to texts by women mystics from medieval and early-Renaissance Europe. A luminous work on its own, Einhorn's oratorio matches both the dramatic arcs and tremulous emotions of Dreyer's film, while its juxtaposition of choral and solo voices (with early-music vocal quartet Anonymous 4 evoking Joan herself) echoes the martyr's confrontation with the court. --Sam Sutherland
Dreyer's account of Joan of Arc-- legendary heroine and universal symbol of faith and bravery--centers on her trial and execution. Derived from actual transcripts of her trial, Dreyer's story defies all conventions of filmmaking through his use of close-
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - It's film, it's art, it's life; it's passion...
Probably one of my favorite films ever made, `La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc' is an extraordinary accomplishment in the world of motion picture cinema. It is silent, but it never lacks a voice; it is black and white yet never void of color; it is decades old yet never feels dated. `La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc' is a monumental landmark in the film world and is deserving of all the praise and admiration it has received from its loyal fans.
The film is quite simply the story of Joan of Arc, ... Read More
Rating: - Faces
Ingmar Bergman always thought that one of the most important features of a film were the faces of the actors. The face can reveal everything, including the fact that the person behind it is trying to conceal something. So in Bergman's films, there typically are long shots of actors' faces, shots in which the viewer is invited to look beneath the mask.
Carol Theodor Dreyer must've had the same intuition when he directed "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Often judged (correctly, I think) ... Read More
Rating: - An Astonishing Revelation
This beautiful restoration of Dreyer's unwavering focus on telling a tale of corruption versus purity gave us a profoundly insightful look into one of history's most intriguing women and the church that sought to destroy her. Dreyer's brilliant use of an off-perspective set, unflinching close-up shots, and fast-paced editing reinforce the central story of an off-kilter religious establishment threatened by and unwilling to embrace true grace. He obviously hit his mark, because the religious establishment ... Read More
Rating: - Magnificent
Maria Falconetti delivers one of the best performances I have ever seen in any movie about the ill fated saint, Joan of Arc, in Dreyer's "Passion". This was, incidentally, her only role aside from a small part in Dreyer's "Le Comtesse".
The tale of this ferocious, devout, and fearfully intense young woman who displayed a purity of heart and resignation to Providence which by itself perhaps summarizes all the words of the theologians and every Psalm is brought raised with a visionary pitch ... Read More
Rating:  - Could have been half as long
OK, the verdict is in: it's art.
I've seen this movie twice on Turner Classic Movies. The film quality is surprisingly good for a silent movie and it is often beautiful, but the camera lingers for far too long, far too often. Don't get me wrong; I don't care for frenetic editing (especially as done on television,) but I was often bored as this film dragged on, though I am a fan of French cinema in general.
I gave it 3 stars for just OK; I don't plan to see it again.
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