The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
"La passion de Jeanne d'Arc" (original title)

A chronicle of the trial of Jeanne d'Arc on charges of heresy, and the efforts of her ecclesiastical jurists to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.

Director:

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writers:

Joseph Delteil, Carl Theodor Dreyer

Stars:

Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Maria Falconetti	...	Jeanne d'Arc (as Melle Falconetti)
Eugene Silvain	...	Évêque Pierre Cauchon (Bishop Pierre Cauchon) (as Eugène Silvain)
André Berley	...	Jean d'Estivet
Maurice Schutz	...	Nicolas Loyseleur
Antonin Artaud	...	Jean Massieu
Michel Simon	...	Jean Lemaître
Jean d'Yd	...	Guillaume Evrard
Louis Ravet	...	Jean Beaupère (as Ravet)
Armand Lurville	...	Juge (Judge) (as André Lurville)
Jacques Arnna	...	Juge (Judge)
Alexandre Mihalesco	...	Juge (Judge)
Léon Larive	...	Juge (Judge)

Storyline

The sufferings of a martyr, Jeanne D'Arc (1412-1431). Jeanne appears in court where Cauchon questions her and d'Estivet spits on her. She predicts her rescue, is taken to her cell, and judges forge evidence against her. In her cell, priests interrogate her and judges deny her the Mass. Threatened first in a torture chamber and then offered communion if she will recant, she refuses. At a cemetery, in front of a crowd, a priest and supporters urge her to recant; she does, and Cauchon announces her sentence. In her cell, she explains her change of mind and receives communion. In the courtyard at Rouen castle, she burns at the stake; the soldiers turn on the protesting crowd.

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Plot Keywords:

judge | suffering | heresy | trial | torture chamber | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

25 October 1928 (France)

Also Known As:

The Passion of Joan of Arc

Filming Locations:

Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Société générale des films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min 88 min (1952 re-release) 82 min (restored DVD)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After completing the original cut of the film, director Carl Theodor Dreyer learned that the entire master print had been accidentally destroyed. With no ability to re-shoot, Dreyer re-edited the entire film from footage he had originally rejected.

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Goofs

Jean's hair is cut with a shiny pair of scissors which appear to be from the 20th century. Pivoted scissors (the kind with finger holes in use today) were not commonly available until the 18th century. Spring-based scissors which you squeeze from the ends of the scissors (kind of like tongs) were the ones used in the middle ages and were usually made out of iron, not steel.

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Quotes

Jeanne d'Arc: [talking to God] Will I be with You tonight in Paradise?

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Connections

Featured in Fejezetek a film történetéböl: Az európai film kezdetei (1989)

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Soundtracks

"Voices of Light"
Written by Richard Einhorn
The score used in the 1995 version

User Reviews

an incredible directorial vision, and a devastating lead in Falconetti, make this one of the greatest achievements in all celluloid

Carl Th. Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc was made, perhaps, years ahead of its time- my guess would be that if it wasn't burned after its initial release, it would've had as stunning an impact on the film world years down the line as Citizen Kane did. Though the use of close-ups and distorted angles were not completely new in this film, it felt like Dreyer was creating a new kind of cinema, one where reality, however cold and pitiful, was displayed with complete sincerity. There is also the editing (by Dreyer and Marguerite Beague), which has the timing that many directors/editors of the modern day could only hope to achieve (it has the influence of Eisenstein, only in a totally different historical context), and those moves with the camera by Rudolph Mate (who would go on to photograph Foreign Correspondent and Lady from Shanghai) that are precious- to call his work on the film extraordinary is an understatement.

And it was crucial for Dreyer to use the close-ups and tilted angles and shots where you only see the eyes in the bottom of the frame, and so forth- he's developing the perfect atmosphere in regards to a trial set in 15th century France. It's all those eyes, all those faces, holding all those stolid mindsets that send Joan to her fate. Pretty soon a viewer feels these presences from all these people, so strong and uncompromising, and Dreyer does a miraculous thing- he makes it so that we forget about the time and place, and all of our attention is thrown onto those eyes of Joan, loaded to brim with a sorrow for where she is, but an un-questionable faith in what she feels about God. I wondered at one point whether Dreyer was making as much a point on people's faiths and prejudices in the almighty, or just one on basic humanity.

There have been many before me who have praised Falconetti's performance to the heavens (Kael called it the finest performance in film), but in a way it almost can't be praised enough. What she achieves here is what Ebert must've felt watching Theron in the recent 'Monster'. I didn't even see her in a performance as Joan of Arc- I saw her as being the embodiment of it, as if Falconetti (with Dreyer's guidance) took Joan out of the pages of the trial transcript and her entire soul took over. There is something in an actor that has to be so compelling, so startling, and indeed so recognizable, that a person can feel empathy and/or sympathy for the person the actor's playing. All a viewer has to do is stare into Falconetti's eyes in any shot, close-up or not, and that viewer may get stirred to boiled-down emotion.

For me, it was almost TOO over-whelming an emotional experience- when Joan is about to get tortured, for example, I found myself completely lost from where I was watching the film, everything in my soul and being was with Joan in that chamber, and for a minute I broke out in tears. That's the kind of effect that Dreyer's craft and all the acting work (including Eugene Sylvain as the Bishop Cauchon, and of course Artaud as Jean) can have on a viewer. I'm not saying it has to, yet The Passion of Joan of Arc could- and should- be considered a milestone in cinematic tragedy, where the images that come streaming forth never leave a viewer, and the detail for time and place becomes just that, a detail for the main stage. Love Joan or hate her, this is for keeps.