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Summary: Another great Criterion Disc
Review: The passion of Joan of Arc is a masterpiece that rivals any sound film. The images in the film say more in 5 minutes then most recent films do in an hour. Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances of all time and Dreyer's intense closeup only add to the intensity of the film. I've watched the film with and without the new soundtrack and it works both ways. The new soundtrack is great and greatly hightens the drama, but the film stand well alone too like and good silent film should. This is the definitive version of this film released by none other then criterion. Although it's a bit pricey the film is worth every cent of it. For a film as old as it is the transer is amazing, thanks to criterion for preserving such an amazing film.
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Summary: Falconetti is beautiful...
Review: After Griffith's INTOLERANCE, Murnau's THE LAST LAUGH, and Gance's NAPOLÉON, Carl Dreyer's visionary masterpiece about the trial and execution of the celebrated French martyr completes the quartet of the greatest silent films ever made. It's probably the most radical - and much more incendiary in its implications than most people realize. Although we almost never see her from the neck and shoulders down, Renée Maria Falconetti's Jeanne d'Arc appears as much a victim of her own latent (ambiguous?) feminine sexuality as any religious heresy. A kind of sadomasochistic eroticism is discernible in Falconetti's submissive posture, occasionally half-closed eyes, pursed sensuous mouth, and 'naked,' 'ecstatic' (orgasmic?) expression. When a priest spits on her face, the saliva running down her cheek has a lewdly suggestive appearance. Even as Jeanne dies by fire (a masculine element), the sweat glistening on Falconetti's exquisite chiseled features - like a melting wax sculpture of a Roman goddess - has a curious aspect of sexual, as well spiritual, profanation. Dreyer also shows a morbid, monomaniacal fixation with hands (e.g., the hands opening and turning the pages of 'the book,' Jeanne's forced surrendering of the ring, the priests' vote on whether she should be compelled to answer a particular question, the conditional offering of a communion wafer, her signing of a false 'confession'). And there is a fetish for sinister phallic objects (e.g., the guards' spears, the sharp spires and jutting angles of the décor, the torture-machine spikes, the fatal quill-pen, the terminal stake). All of this plus the disjunctive shot sequences, low camera angles, uneven framing, and vertiginous sense of spatial instability lend a fearful tangibility to Jeanne's abject physical helplessness, provocative sexuality, and supposed 'feminine hysteria.' Along with an increased awareness of the gross physicalities of death, Dreyer draws deliberate parallels between his heroine's ordeal and the life of Christ. The first sign is the shadow of the cross cast on the floor of her prison cell. Another occurs when the Burgundian guards mock Jeanne's piety and adorn her with a false scepter and crown. Her bloodletting by the priests is reminiscent of Jesus offering his flesh and blood in the form of the Passover bread and wine at the Last Supper. And when she is finally escorted to the stake, the event is punctuated by seemingly unrelated shots of a flock of birds gathering on, and then dispersing from, a steeple - a kind of omen (?) that recalls the Stations of the Cross. But Dreyer's most curious quirk is his radical opposition to basic principles of narrative framing and continuity editing. His film is almost entirely composed of fractured medium-shots and truncated close-ups, often devoid of any ground planes. In fact, close-ups of Falconetti's tortured and enraptured face constitute about forty percent of the shots in the film, with almost no depth cues or establishing mise-en-scène to give us our bearings. This insistent discontinuity of spatial relationships becomes especially confounding during the torture-chamber sequence when Falconetti is seen positioned at one side of the frame and then at the other, even though her interrogators appear to be situated somewhere else. The multiplicity of eyelines and suggested viewpoints seems too arbitrary and chaotic to be a plausible rendering of experience in the Expressionist manner. Watching LA PASSION DE JEANNE D'ARC is like trying to imaginatively assemble the scattered pieces of a mosaic or jigsaw puzzle with some of the crucial parts missing. It is what T. S. Eliot called "a heap of broken images." The final climactic burning at the stake concurs with a popular revolt against the occupying English forces at Rouen, a symbolic correlation that evokes the slaughter of the proletarian masses in Eisenstein's STRIKE and POTEMKIN. Dreyer's obsession with woman as totemic focal point amidst a swirling spectacle of garish violence recalls Fritz Lang and the strategic central 'fulcrum' position of Margarethe Schön in KRIEMHILDE'S REVENGE or Brigitte Helm as the twin Marias in METROPOLIS. Just as Gance's Napoléon emerges from the crucible of the French Revolution as "a man of destiny," Dreyer's Jeanne rises like a phoenix out of the ashes of the Hundred Years' War - immortalized as "the spirit of the people of France."
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Summary: THE MOST SPIRITUAL OF FILM
Review: THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is often considered as the greatest achievement of cinema as "art". Though it is quite true, I personally find this remark somewhat misleading, in a sense that it may be taken as a film restricted for elite audience. This is not what this film is really about. THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is indeed the most passionate, the most emotional film ever made, in which the attention is closely focused on basic and simple human emotion; not a glorious story of a national heroine, but the passion of a simple girl (after all, as the film clearly states, Jeanne D'Arc was an illiterate peasant girl) who believed in her faith, confronted with frightful oppressing elitist authorities who are determined to keep their face by destroying her faith, and ultimately destroying herself. What they do not understand is that her physical destruction actually means her great victory, that by overcoming her fear of death and accepting her martyrdom, she reaches the highest point human spirit can attain, so close to divinity. To realize this spiritual vision in the simplest and emotional way possible, Dreyer strips down all the conventions of an "epic" film. It is well known that the set constructed for this film was one of the most expensive movie set ever made. But Dreyer rarely shows the entire set. Yet the sets plays a crucial role in the narrative of this film by putting the characters (and therefore, the audience) in a proper surrounding of this drama. He also forbid his actors to use make-ups, allowing him to show even the tiniest change of expression of Jeanne on screen. The most effective is his use of extensive close-ups and unconventional camera angles (with bare white wall in the background for nearly every shot), not only to isolate the human faces from the background, but to really bring out the spirituality of Jeanne from our ordinary human physicality. THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC is more than cinema; it is a spiritual experience for the audience, almost religeous. And this masterpiece is finally available in a form as close as possible to its original form. Restored from an original pristine print miraculously salvaged from an insane asylum in Oslo ("miracle" is really an appropriate term to use here), this DVD represents Dreyer's original cut which was long considered to be lost. The clear-sharp cinematography which captures the slightest detail of the human face--a thin winkle, a hair, a drop of tear-- is beautifully transferred. Dreyer himself wanted this film shown without any music, and the DVD offers a silent track. But for most contemporary audience, it is difficult to see a silent film completely silent. However, to chose the right musical score to match the power of Dreyer's imagery is very difficult. This DVD also features a musical score of Richard Einhorn's opera/oratorio VOICES OF LIGHT, which uses writings of medieval religious people (including a letter by Jeanne herself). It is, unlike most silent-movie score, not a narrative score. But the spirituality of the music matches the spirituality of the film, providing an immense powerful experience which moves you from the gut level. The audio essay by Dreyer scholar Casper Tybjerg provides insightful information and a trust-worthy guidance for a deeper understanding of the film. Unlike many elitist scholars, Tybjerg tells you that knowledge is not really important to understand this film. What is more difficult indeed to go beyond the knowledge, to attain the bare, truthful simplicity in human spirituality. For all who truly loves movies, those who believe that cinema is an inseparable part of one's life, this is a must-have DVD.
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Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is one of my favorite movies. The cinematography and the acting are among the best I have ever seen. Falconetti's performance is moving and the judges are believable. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is serious about film. If for nothing else you should see this movie for the beauty of the close-ups.
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Summary: The Emperor's new clothes?
Review: Damn me for a philistine, but I'm afraid that I didn't like the film very much. What put me off were the never-ending tight close-ups of Joan's face, the way she would telegraph her feelings for thirty seconds before making even the briefest answer, and her apparent inability to hold her head up straight. Though Ms Falconetti's is one of the most expressive faces I've ever seen, her telegraphing and the odd camera work made her seem just a bit weird. I found myself thinking: "Oh, enough with the eyes already! Just answer the question." But what do I know?
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Summary: Magic from the 20s
Review: A beautiful movie, a perfect sound track, combined with a brilliant work of digital restoration. Few movies I ever watched are so captivating, and few performances are as interesting as a single close-up of Maria Falconetti. It's a pity that this masterpiece has been lost for some many years, but it's time now to give Dreyer his place in the history of moviemaking. Shut down the lights, turn on the volume, and sit close to the TV. Don't forget to breath.
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Summary: Beautiful
Review: The Passion of Joan of Arc is a rare film that captures your attention the moment Maria Falconetti's expressive face appears. The portrayal of Joan of Arc by Falconetti is magnetic on screen. There is something mystifying in Falconetti's performance that is absolutely uncommon on film. Perhaps, the most poignant scene in the film occurs when Joan is in her cell and upon the floor is a shadow reflection of the bars from her window. Within Joan's perception the bars begin to form the image of the cross, and in that moment of revelation Joan's expression changes from sadness to an expression of hope. Yet, Faclonetti's performance is not the only captivating aspect of the film. There is much to be said about the cinematography, art direction, and camera angles throughout the film. Dreyer's distinctive attention to detail pervades from beginning to end. From the turn of a page in the first moments of the film, to the close-ups of the tribune of priests, and monks. Dreyer sets the stage for the film with precision. All the while, the melodious sounds of Voices of Light add more dynamic to the film. Overall, The Passion of Joan of Arc is a testament to the versatility of silent films at its best: moving, expressive, and masterful.
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Summary: The St. Matthew Passion of the Silents
Review: I think Carl Theodore Dreyer's "Passion of Joan of Arc" can be compared to Bach's "St. Matthew Passion". Both were created by Lutherans, who took their religion seriously. Bach used music as the idiom of his devotion, as I think Dreyer did with film. In fact, Dreyer's frustrated ambition was to make a Life of Christ, which he had finally begun just before his death. I would suggest, that what we are seeing in the "Passion of Joan of Arc" and Dreyer's other films is - as we are hearing in Bach's music - the passion of a great master.
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Summary: I once was lost...
Review: Are you tired of Hollywood regurgitation? Tired of Dolby, DTS, SurroundSound, audio acronym hell? Then buy/rent and see this fantastic (silent) film. Honestly I was getting really down about recent movie releases and not feeling too good about the media in general(this happens sometimes though usually not in the Summer). Then I decided to watch my copy of The Passion of Joan of Arc and all I can think of is all the classic wonderful movies I love that are (almost) as good as well as being inspired to write and make films, and I'm not a film-maker! Few films that I have seen have lingered in my mind as this one has, always a good sign. Don't be turned off by the high price of Criterion DVD's as their quality nearly always makes up for it; I have quite a few of their titles and have yet to be disappointed.
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Summary: The Restoration of the Century
Review: When you listen to Falconetti's daughter relate the remaining years of her mother's life in an audio interview included on this DVD - she made no more films, tried to emigrate to America and failed, went to Argentina, settled there and died - it sounds almost as sad and inexplicable as the fate of the film that made her immortal: The negative was burned in a studio fire; another version was reconstituted from alternate takes; it, too, was believed lost; censors made cuts from remaining prints; the negative of the second version was discovered; it, too, was tampered with and lost. It was almost as if the enemies of Joan were still trying to sabotage her legacy. This restored version sweeps the squalid history of the film's near-destruction completely away. What we have is a film probably identical to Dreyer's original cut, seen by no one since its premier in Denmark. Criterion has used the best available materials for its DVD version. It offers additional material, such as a musical track and commentary by a Danish film archivist. The musical track, I'm afraid, detracts from the film experience. It begins with the erroneous premise that a silent film requires a sonic dimension to satisfy viewers. The film is hypnotic, in this case, precisely because it is silent. Richard Einhorn's disembodied choruses, while pleasant enough on their own, seem to drown out the voices of Joan and her inquisitors - voices that, days after watching the film, I could swear that I heard. Even the intertitles, while often discreet, intrude somehow on the images, as if they were somehow redundant. But this is surely a film for the ages, and the restoration of the century.
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