The Passion of Joan of Arc (Criterion Collection Spine #62)
by Carl Theodor Dreyer
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DVD details
Actor: Andr? Berley, Antonin Artaud, Eugene Silvain, Maria Falconetti, Maurice SchutzDirector: Carl Theodor Dreyer
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Silent, Special Edition
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 82 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-10-19
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of The Passion of Joan of Arc (Criterion Collection Spine #62)
DVD Review: Saint Carl
Summary: 5 Stars
A while back the Turner Classic Movie channel dedicated a day to the Director Carl Theodore Dreyer. I'd never heard of him before. I watched a couple of the film offerings and was captivated. I purchased four Dreyer films from Amazon. I'm glad I did. My favorite [personal bias] is 'Day of Wrath' but the 'Passion of Joan of Arc' is also wonderful and, considering that it is a 'silent' film it still speaks plenty loudly enough. Dreyer apparently searched for a time before he found his perfect 'Joan' in Maria Falconetti. The casting was indeed perfect and closeups of the illuminated and tortured Maria's face perfectly mimic the emotions of the strange and naive Joan.
Confused and increasingly hopeless, she stands before the Holy Office accused of being a witch. We all know the story through it's many retellings. She hears heavenly voices and will not deny them. She is condemned and her writhing death in the flames is both horrific and weirdly appropriate. Joan with her devout mysticism is simply too good to live.
The film is, of course, filmed in black-and-white and the light and shadow is hallmark Dreyer--every pore and imperfection and droplet of sweat show on the face of the fervent Falconetti/Joan. If I have a criticism, and it's only a small one, is that perhaps there is a little too much emphasis on these closeups. In that way it resembles Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ' in which the scourging was overdone.
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Conquest of Mexico
DVD Review: It's film, it's art, it's life; it's passion...
Summary: 5 Stars
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, the troubled young woman who was burned at the stake by the English for on charges of heresy. Claiming that god spoke to her through visions, Joan fought for her country and led the French to several victories before she was captured by the English. The film's focus is the trial that lead to Joan's execution, and so that is where we begin.
The film beautifully (and tragically) captures the inhumanity that surrounded Joan's trial and gives the audience an insider's look at what took place. The film itself is marvelously constructed, the first half (the trial) focusing on the actors faces, exposing every blemish and emotional response and allowing the audience the ability to feel what these characters are feeling; the rage and disgust as well as the fear and loyalty. French stage actress Melle Falconetti delivers one of the finest performances ever committed to film as Joan. Her alienesque eyes carry such emotional weight, displaying her unwavering loyalty and devotion to the god she believes is backing her, as well as capturing the very fear that runs through her veins at the thought of her impending fate. The director's method of filming her only works to embellish what she is already accomplishing.
Such a marvelous performance.
The second half of the film follows Joan's interrogation, prodding her to recant her statements and claim her visions a hoax. She's threatened with torture, death, you name it and she is eventually mislead into denouncing her beliefs in order to spare her life, but her life is not able to be spared.
The final frames, depicting Joan's execution, are almost too painful to watch. Much more effective than anything Mel Gibson was able to accomplish with his modern day bloodbath, director Carl Theodor Dreyer chooses a more tasteful approach to Joan's death. Yes, it is graphic to a certain extent, but it is more symbolic (just try and spot all the displaced crosses within this film) than literal and this helps elevate the emotional level of the film.
`La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc' is presented silent (my preference) but also with a background soundtrack provided by `Voices of Light'. The musical arrangement is beautiful and helps capture the emotions being displayed on the screen, but knowing that the film was originally intended to be seen and not heard I prefer to watch it as the director created it. The film speaks for itself, loud and clear, and is in no need of any audio accompaniment.
There are few films today that can compare to the feeling one receives when watching this marvel of a film. Many films have tried to capture Joan of Arc, but none of them can come close to what Dreyer accomplished here. `La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc' has had a rough journey to your living room (please read the forward to the film, for it helps explain why this picture is of such importance; and quite frankly such a privilege to witness) but it has made it, and the blessing reaped from its presence are beyond words.
DVD Review: Faces
Summary: 5 Stars
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) to be the best film ever made, it's also a profound example of how expressive the face is. There's little dialogue, and the sets are minimmal. The heart of the film are the camera shots of faces: Joan's, the judges', the soldiers', the auto de fe spectators' at film's end. The shots are taken from every possible angle and perspective, and they brilliantly capture the range of human emotions and experiences: scorn, incredulity, fear, love, panic, trust, betrayal, pity, compassion, hatred, fervor.
The actors in Dreyer's film, all of them except Renee Falconetti (Joan) and Antonin Artaud (the sympathetic monk) obscure, deliver unforgettable performances. Given the film's theme, it would've been so easy to overact in that (to us) melodramatic and hammy style so often seen in silent movies: Joan's arms frozen in midair, her eyes wide with terror; the ecclesiastical judges utter villains, laughing heavily at her plight; and so on. But instead there's a subtlety in the performances that one rarely finds in any film, silent or otherwise. Nothing is overdone, nothing is stylized. Consequently, the characters come across authentically, truthfully. It really must be seen to be appreciated.
The Criterion edition of "Passion of Joan" includes an option for watching the film with Richard Einhorn's 1994 oratorio, a composition that incorporates medieval music from Joan's time. The combination of Dreyer and Einhorn is magnificent. There's also an intriguing short showing pieces of the film before its restoration. How fortunate we are to be able to see this masterpiece, once thought lost, in a digitalized reincarnation.
Ten stars.
DVD Review: An Astonishing Revelation
Summary: 5 Stars
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 of the day immediately set about the film's destruction through censorship, protest, and possibly even fire--life proving the truth in the art it sought to destroy. Even if you are not Christian, you must see this astonishing triumph!DVD Review: Magnificent
Summary: 5 Stars
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 through the lens' of Dreyer's visionary camera and the Falconetti's mastery of each and every muscle in her face. I have never seen a performance like it in film, ever. As she is tortured, a kind of wild rapture still fills her doomed eyes, one of an angel. It is said that Dreyer would have her kneel on stones--without anything covering her knees to capture the inner pain and torment Joan of Arc must have felt.
The tale is sad. The then highly corrupt Church condemns her for three thing: fighting the British, claiming to have visions of God which are private, and last but certainly not least, wearing boys' clothes. Dreyer was way ahead of his time in this respect. Antonin Artaud makes a few appearances two as a sympathetic monk who gives her the last rites in disobedience to the Church. His very presence boils the film to the point of a pressure cooker; seeing Falconetti and Artaud on the same set must have been something.
One of the only films in history about which I can honestly say: perfect, without flaw.
Description of The Passion of Joan of Arc (Criterion Collection Spine #62)
With its stunning camerawork and striking compositions, Carl Th. Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc convinced the world that movies could be art. Ren?e Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances ever recorded on film, as the young maiden who died for God and France. Long thought to have been lost to fire, the original version was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981-in a Norwegian mental institution. Criterion is proud to present this milestone of silent cinema in a new special edition featuring composer Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light, an original opera/oratorio inspired by the film.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 Mat?, 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 Mat?'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 Mat? 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 (n?e 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
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