Rating: 
Summary: You Must Change Your Life
Review: Superlatives abound, yet they sound cheap before this supreme example of film art. Since its release, if you could call it that, in 1928, receiving only one uncensored screening in its theatrical history, Carl Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc has been celebrated and glorified largely in effigy, since few people in the 72 years since have actually seen the original, untampered-with version Carl Dreyer meant everyone to see. Now, thanks to the tireless efforts of film scholars and archivists, we can now watch this film closer to its original condition than ever. And yet, Erich Stroheim's Greed got greater publicity than this restoration. What other handful of films, since the beginning until now, can be said to equal Dreyer's Passon of Joan of Arc in power and purity? I can think of maybe a half-dozen, even in a generous mood. It reiterates Rilke's famous exhortation: after the experience of any great work of art, we find ourselves challenged to the very root of our existence. Once the intertitles announce the end of the film, we leave murmuring Rilke's immortal words, "You must change your life." If great art accomplishes anything, it is to shake us out of our complacencies and remind us to at least attempt something authentic. The Passion of Joan of Arc comes closer to what Harry Alan Potamkin announced as a "conclusive" work of art than any I have seen.
Rating:
Summary: a silent masterpiece
Review: This 1928 film has been restored beautifully, and is based on the actual transcripts of the trial. As a piece of history, this is a must to view. At the age of nineteen, this amazing woman could not even write her own name, but could answer the most complex questions with profound wisdom. Of all the films made about her, this is the one to see, and to own !
Rating:
Summary: A must have for any Film lover
Review: One of the greatest films ever now has gotten the Criterion Collection treatment.If there ever was a film that deserved this special attention this is this one. One of the most (emotionally) powerful films ever filmed. Criterion's transfer and supplementary work is incredible.
Rating:
Summary: "Mysticism achieved"--indefectibly
Review: The Passion of Joan of Arc is if not the greatest, certainly the most poignant and evocative film I have ever seen. I am not cinematically knowledgeable enough to provide any worthwhile insight as to its technical achievement. Suffice it to say that it has been universally extolled by critics for its bold, innovative filming methods--topics which I know little about. I can only attest to its effect on the lay viewer, which is nothing less than transporting. I played it for two highly intelligent, but very different, friends, one a professor of psychology, the other of theology, and both, obviously affected, at once declared that they had never seen anything better. One even made a point of reccommending it to his class the following Monday, it was so etched in his mind. Carl Theodore Dreyer, with audacity, I first thought, called his film "mysticism achieved." Ninety minutes later, trying to reassemble myself, elbows on my knees, head bent forward trembling in my hands, I heard myself muttering, "He was right, he was right." I am usually skeptical and stolid about movies. No praise is high enough for this one. The Passion of Joan of Arc is enlightening the way a diligent reading of Hamlet is enlightening. It quickens and commoves and ravages and uplifts the soul, making it, after all this tumult, irrepresibly more sensitive and introspective, more tender and solicitous for justice. No thinking mind or feeling heart can ever be the same after this experience. The images haunt like implacable nightmares from God, at once horrible and redeeming. The intense close-ups of Joan's physiognomy--sometimes shivering and lachrymose, sometimes inspired and ecstatic, yet always endearing--for days flit and blight and stain and embolden one's consciousness. And, even though "its only a movie," you will hate the real world for killing her. For not adoring her as you do. You will be grateful to the brave friar who, after a physically huge, fulminating judge bends down and spits in Joan's tear-streamed face, stands and defiantly announces, "For me she is a saint," then bows his tonsured head at her leg-irons, as if to plead for forgiveness. For an instant you will flatter yourself that had you been there you would have done the same. And your head will sink when you realize you probably wouldn't. There were a host of percipient, powerful and learned judges at the trial, and none of them did. There was only one wise man who stood athwart the consensus of his peers, and most of us are not like him: we are not foolish enough to be wise. So it is with man. Hagiography is always dangerous, because when it is blunders it profanes, as the sadly innacurate and wearisome most recent film about Joan, "The Messenger," does. This is perhaps why very few films depict the lives of saints. But I doubt it. More likely it is because film makers, especially nowadays in cupidity-infected Hollywood, are more interested in titillating than edifying, the former always being an easier sell than the latter. When they do turn an eye toward the truly saintly, it is usually a scoffing, demythologizing one, one that seeks to blunt or debunk his saintliness rather than explain or even just honestly depict it. Dreyer's silent masterpiece is a silent paean to whatever that strange afflatus it is that distinguishes these holy men and women from everyone else. When, just after being sentenced to burn at the stake for heresy, Joan, her faith unshaken, whispers, "His ways are not our ways," we are taken aback with the humbling realization that Joan's ways are not our ways. The demythologizers try to narrow the gulf between us and the saintly. Their attempts are nearly always forgotten. Dreyer effectively italicizes it, smiting us with awe and reverence and wonder. And for this his film is immortal.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: An almost perfect DVD. Too bad the film is not at silent speed. The first time I saw it at the Rice University Media Center they went out of their way to change the speed of their projector in order to show it at silent speed. How much greater the film is at 16 fps! Too bad Criterion didn't follow suit.
Rating:
Summary: great silent film
Review: It is the gripping story of Joan of arc's trial and excecution. This has got to be the best dramatic silent film ever made. I highly recomend it!
Rating:
Summary: En nom De! Excellence Never Again To Be Matched!
Review: Eloquence aside, I cried, and cried and cried and cried - not for hours, but for days after viewing this film. I have seen every other Jehanne d'Arc film made...this is the only one that squeezed my heart so. God bless Renee Falconetti and Carl Theodor Dryer. You have never seen a true Jehanne d'Arc portrayal until you have seen this film.
Rating:
Summary: If Ever........
Review: If ever a single piece of cinema claim to be divinely inspired it is this. No matter what faith you may hold (or not) this one film will move you in a way i cannot describe except to say that your understanding of humanity will be increased. Something about the direct emotionality enters the sincere viewer empathically and leaves one with the ineffable feeling of having witnessed the flower of grace. For the devout Christian viewer this film must be as inspirational as Theresa of Avila or John of the Cross. I would be surprised if various churches did not recommend this film as inspirational. There really is nothing like it. Ever.
Rating:
Summary: Well crafted and unusual film
Review: Carl Dreyer's "Passion of Joan of Arc" is one of the best made silent films. The editing, camerawork, narrative, and lighting all add up to a stand out piece of movie making. As far as technique goes, it belongs with the one hundred or so best films of the pre-sound era. I can't say that it is an enjoyable experience, though. The subject is grim: the trial and execution (by burning) of Joan of Arc who was a seer, saint, and -remarkably- military leader (at age 19). The setting is even grimmer: the medieval church in all its narrow, hardheaded and hardhearted infamy. There is an oppressive, claustrophobic religiosity about this film that will seem positively creepy to Christians born after Vatican 2. The film isn't inspiring; rather, it gives one the "willies" to see how easily people were charged with being witches and burned alive at the stake-by high placed clerics no less! Many people praise Falconetti's performance as Joan but I found her performance to consist of nothing more than two or three very anquished expressions. This is the type of film you admire for its technique and historical importance while not actually "liking".
Rating:
Summary: HELL ON EARTH
Review: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Fritz Lang and Carl-Theodor Dreyer form a dark trilogy in the sky of the european filmmakers of the mid-20's . Released 80 years ago, their movies are still way above the 99,9 % of what our new geniuses have to offer us nowadays. Including Michaël Bay and the Farreli Brothers. With a minimum of make-up, the actors of THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC play once again the trial of one of the first passionaria of the history of the world. One has often said that Maria Falconetti, Joan of Arc, gives here the best performance ever of an actress on screen. You are going to be hypnotized by the eyes of this woman, filled with tears and the vision of God. Let's also note the superb travellings imagined by Carl-Theodor Dreyer in the trial room ; for him, a camera movement really means something and is not only a way to impress the audience. You will be, like the others, one of the judges who have the task to tempt and to judge Joan of Arc. Since 1998, there are perhaps four or five DVDs that deserve to be considered as books destined to stay for a long time in your movie lover's library ; danish director Carl-Theodor Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is one of them. No other copy in the world is as complete as the one Criterion is presenting, cleaned and ready for the eternity. You are given the possibility to watch the movie with a commentary or with a very accurate musical score. Extra features also include deleted scenes, an interview with Maria Falconetti's daughter and historical notes. A DVD for my library.
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