THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC Movie Review

Renée Maria Falconetti appeared in one film in her lifetime, Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc. To call her performance legendary would be a gross understatement; to call the film a masterpiece is not enough. The film is based on historical records of Joan's trial, which took place when she was 19. The film is extremely straightforward, and it is unrelenting in its cumulative emotional power. Much has been written about Dreyer's dramatic use of close-ups, which are generally presented from a very strong, subjective viewpoint, making the viewer a participant in the horrifying spectacle that's unfolding (it's a technique that Hitchcock would master as well, using it to prevent audiences from being able to experience disturbing material from a “safe” distance.) The power of Falconetti's performance is astounding and exhausting. Rudolph Maté's photography is at every turn an active participant with the performers, and has to be considered one of the greatest achievements of not just the silent cinema, but of cinema. Dreyer's refusal to compromise is evident in every aspect of the film. The actors wore no makeup, which gave Dreyer much greater freedom when photographing in close-up the expressiveness of faces. The choice of Falconetti was also controversial, since she was only a modestly successful stage actress who had had no experience in film. The set itself was by all reports boiling over with passion, as performers stayed in character after the cameras stopped rolling, profoundly stirred by the scenes they had just played. The effect of the finished film may have been best summed up by Jean Cocteau, who wrote that “it seems like an historical document from an era in which the cinema didn't exist.” Censored by the Catholic Church in France, banned in England for years after its completion, Joan has survived it all, and is one of the most frequently revived films of the silent era. Live orchestras frequently provide musical accompaniment to the film, but it isn't necessary; the music of The Passion of Joan of Arc is generated within us, by the succession of magnificent images on the screen.

NEXT STOP … The Battleship Potemkin, Day of Wrath, The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962)

1928 114m/B FR Renee Maria Falconetti, Eugena Sylvaw, Maurice Schultz, Antonin Artaud; D: Carl Theodor Dreyer. VHS VYY, MRV, NOS