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Seeing Joan of Arc today remains a cinematic revelation, its approach to storytelling, set design, editing, and especially cinematography (by Rudolph Mate, 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 Mate'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 Mate 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 (nee 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

Just because this is a silent film should be no reason for anybody to suspect that the pace of this film is slow and boring, quite the opposite. The film builds with great suspense which is almost unbroken throughout, making what could have been routine and uninteresting conversations in the hands of another director glow with life as he shows us in detail the faces, personalities, and motivations of the people who judge Joan of Arc; he gives us whispered words passed between the characters, the indignation on their faces when their will is refused, even the quiet, heartbreaking regret of one of the priests who condemns her, which comes much too late to be of any use. All this is done with incredibly imaginative camera angles and wonderful pacing.

The composer of the music that goes with this film deserves as much credit as the director of TPoJoA, which is saying a lot! The orchestral + voices score to the movie is powerful, fascinating, and would be interesting to listen to on its own; combine it with the movie and the effect is astounding; it perfectly captures every mood shown in the movie, amplifying them twofold.

The final scene in the movie was one of the most horrific scenes I've ever seen in a movie, rivaling the scene in Elem Klimov's "Come and See" (probably the most powerful war movie to come out of the USSR) where an entire Belorussian village is burnt to the ground with all of the inhabitants still inside.

Certainly a movie that must be seen to be believed. It will have less significance for you if you are not religious, but all the same it should be seen. You will not be bored, neither by the movie nor by the accompanying score.

Technically, this is a very good restoration; I only noticed very minor blemishes once or twice during the entire length of the film; the picture was clear otherwise. It does seem that it runs a little too fast at times, probably because the score was not long enough for it to run at a normal tempo. I think that this faster speed generally makes the movie more interesting to watch, especially for a modern audience, though there are times when it is really noticeable (when we see close-ups of Joan's face for example). Still, this is not often enough to spoil the film.


A true classic of cinema   May 14, 2004
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film

This movie is one of the most well known classics of Europe. The 2nd original print, long thought to be lost to fire, was miraculously found in the closet of a mental hospital in Norway in 1981. The 1st original was burned though.

The recent film, "Passion of the Christ" was not the only "passion" film to generate controversy. This film was thought to be anti-England due to its protrayal of their treatment to Joan of Arc. The French were also upset that a non-French and non-Catholic man directed the film. The film's dialoge (by intertitles as it is a silent film) is based on actual transcripts of Joan's trial which have managed to survive also. The film is said to be very moving for some people just like Gibson's "Passion of the Christ." Not being Catholic, I am not sure of what many of the elements of either film may refer to.

The DVD has numerous special features as always.

Audio commentary by Dryer scholar Casper Tybjerg of Copenhagen University (he has a thick Danish accent that is very nice)
Optional soundtrack for Richard Einhorn's "Voices of Light" (a musical piece inspired by the film)alsong with an essay about the music and a libretto booklet.
Production design archive
History of the many different cuts and alternat versions of the film
Audio-only interview with the star's daughter, Helene Falconetti.


JUANA DE ARCO   May 9, 2004
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

The FILM is a masterpiece, no doubt at all.
But few people comment anything about the atrocities and
depraved soul of the Catholic Christians who used to burn so
many beautiful souls. It is amazing that "EVEN NOW" such a
perverse institution as the Catholic Church still exists.
There is nothing more ANTI-CHRISTIAN than the Catholic Church.
They burnt Joan of Arc, as they did many "true christians" during the crusades and the inquisitions.
This FILM make one think a lot! That's what films should do on oneself: teach realities and lessons worth learning.


An extraordinary accident -   May 3, 2004
About 5-10 years ago, I asked my mother (then 70 yrs old or so) what the best movie she'd ever seen was. She said Carl Dryer's Joan of Arc, which then had not yet been re-released. When I told a film lover this, he said "oh, that was EASY." Intrigued I went to see the movie at Avery Fisher Hall at the new release with Einhorn's score. Well, I was speechless. It was nothing I expected it to be. And, as it happens, not what Carl Dryer expected either! He had to create it from rejected footage when the original version was destroyed in a fire. Proof of his genius, now one can't even imagine another version. With all of these close-ups that were originally rejected, could we still today be so amazed by it? Even up close, Maria Falconetti's performance is the most humble I have ever seen in my life. The script is just a court proceeding, which I believe was from the original court transcripts. Seeing the film, witnessing the ridiculous trial, and experiencing Maria Falconetti's soul, I went away feeling sad for the human race.