#20: The Passion Of Joan Of Arc

The Passion of Joan Of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)

This is the fourth Dreyer film I've seen, and the first I've liked. The film portrays the final days of Joan of Arc, after she's captured when she's put on trial and subsequently killed. It portrays a lot of religious intellectuals trying to debate, trick and threaten Joan into confessing she is not a messenger from God. They give her fake letters from her king, they offer her religious services in exchange for confessing and then call her evil for turning down the religious services. Through it she's terrified and confused, but stays true to her belief that she's a messenger from God and will be rewarded for her suffering through acceptance into heaven. What really strikes me about the film is the amount of emotion it manages to portray with only facial expressions. You can see precisely what Joan and her prosecutors are thinking, and you can clearly make the distinction between their stated agenda and their obvious hidden agenda, whatever their current ploy is.

Rating: **** 1/ 2 / 5

37/101