The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

With a history almost as dramatic as the story it is portraying The Passion of Joan of Arc is hailed as one of the finest films ever made, and for over half a century it was believed so by those who had never seen the original creative vision of the filmmaker. Using the actually ditated records of the trail of Joan of Arc writer/director Carl Theodor Dreyer attempted to bring to the screen the story and emotional struggle of one of most legendary tales of martyrdom in the western world. With creative filmmaking techniques and superb acting Dreyer would bring the story of the young girl in the 15th century that died unwavering from her faith in God and country to life.

The film depicts the trail and executioin of the legendary Joan of Arc played by a relative unknown stage actress Renée Jeanne Falconetti. The film manifests very powerfully the inner struggles of this courageous young lady as she was tried on the case of blasphemy as she claims God led her to fight for her country, France, and drive the English out. Numerous times her judges lead her to a point where she simply needs to recant her statements to be let go, but sorrowfully she stands her ground knowing she will be killed for what she says. She stands by her convictions of divine calling which ultimately leads to her demise as she is publicly burned to the stake. The affair on the screen depicts Joan as being very devoted to her belief in God and her calling as if she knows this is what she is suppose to do despite it being what will kill her, much like the telling of the passion of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact the story is very much parallels the standard Jesus passion story ending with a crowd watching her death and believing now more then ever that she was in fact sent by God to fight for her country.

The film was shot in a very unconventional style for its time. There is some excellent use of moving camera shots giving us a view of several people, their actions (or reactions), and revealing the surroundings of the situations in the trail. To see so many moving camera shot evoke a feeling of a busy space full of people all trying to understand the situation with Joan helps drive the film and its story far beyond if it was shot in all static shots. Many times the camera is heald at an angle giving a surreal feeling, as if things are not right manifesting how menacing the trial is on poor Joan as she stands her ground on faith not giving into pressure to deny her God. But what is most striking of all in the filming techniques of this picture is the heavy use of close ups and the actors obvisously not wearing makeup. This technique by Dreyer was done to use the subtleness of the facial features to evoke emotion, where every quiver of the lips, and wrinkle on the brow told innumberable amounts of emotion going through the minds of the judges and Joan. The ever so slight facial acting of Falconetti, evoking struggle of the heart and the mind, tells the story of Joan, especially through her soulfully deep eyes as she sucks you into her devotions in faith. Her littlest movements pull you in more and more as the trail continues towards her tragic end. Her acting performance is said to be the greatest acting performance of all time by a select amount of critics which is amazing considering this was only her second and final film. It seems to be the perfect performance for this picture.

The history of this particular picture shows just how fragile film really was. The film was a celebrate piece of cinema, but shortly after it's initial release the original master negative, the source upon which all copies would be made, was lost in a fire, leaving only a small few original (and over used) copies to chrolical the original artictic vision of Dreyer's film. The original copies would be lost in time from use and destruction. Dreyer would attempt to recreate the movie with the outtake shot (the shots that were very much the same, but not used in assembly of the original edit,) therefore the movie was very similar, but not exactly the same leading to believe the origianl vision was lost for all time. With the advent of sound, distributers would add sound effects or voice overs eliminating title cards without Dreyer's consent, leaving him frustrated and upset that his vision was not being respected. Years after Dreyer's passing a marvelous discovery would be made at an asylum in Olso, Norway of a well preserved print of the original cut of the picture. Its differences were subtly noticeable from the re-edit, allowing the world that this was in fact the real original film to be preserved and once again enjoyed as Dreyer's original version of his classic film.

The Passion of Joan of Arc is hailed by many publications as one of the best silent, foreign, and even all-time films time and time again, hailed along side with the great acting of Falconetti. Almost miraculously it has been discovered saved from the destruction of time to prove to be just as powerful and creative now as it was then. This film is a must see for those interest at all in film.