A review of the 1928 classic film “The Passion Of Joan Of Arc”
This story of the most French of characters, the defender and patron saint of the nation – Joan had been canonised just eight years earlier – was in fact directed by a Dane, Carl Theodor Dreyer, as a black & white production with no sound. Indeed the French had problems with it: the Archbishop of Paris demanded several excisions and French Government censors made further changes.
This classic work was almost lost to history: the original negative was destroyed by a fire, a second negative was lost to another fire, and a print of the original version was only finally discovered in 1981.
A restored version became available in 2015 and, ten years later, I saw that version on the screen at the British Film Institute with a live piano accompaniment. At the end, the audience applauded.
The film is an astonishing work of great power. It is based on a transcript of the 1431 trial of 19-year old peasant girl Joan who claimed to have had visions inspiring her to oppose English domination of her country. The French ecclesiastical authorities were not ready to accept that such a lowly figure was in communication with the divine and the English occupying force saw her as a insurrectionist. She stood no chance and was burned alive at the stake.
Much of the film consists of close ups of faces, often from below or above, most notably the tearful visage of Joan herself, portrayed movingly by Renée Falconetti, a theatre actress making her first (and essentially last) film appearance. The work is full of memorable imagery: crosses, birds, shadows, smoke, and over and over again those faces. Truly, a classic.