The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Joan of Arc’s story is an amazing one. She was a peasant girl who was sent on a relief mission when Orléans was under siege. She went against the cautious attitude of local war council and led several succesfull attacks to conquer new territory from the English. She managed to do this for a while but was captured. Although she tried to escape several times (one time jumping from a height of 21 metres (70 foot)) she didn’t succeed to do so. On 9 January 1431, when she was 19, her trial began and this is the focus of this silent film.

It is an amazing movie to watch as it consists of a lot of closeups, capturing the emotions and reactions of Joan (played by Maria Falconetti, her only movie role) and the others involved in the trial in detail. No sound is needed to understand what Joan is going through. As is well-known, the trial wasn’t a fair one and this film makes this very clear. It was done by the church and the men are constantly shown talking to each other and making up questions that would result in answers they could use to convict her of heresy. The way they are filmed makes them threatening, usually from low angles in high contrast. Seeing as this movie was made in 1928 in has some shots that don’t look dated (like the camera tracking across the audience at the trial).

This was a movie that was almost lost to us. It was censored before it was released and the master negative was destroyed by a fire. The director, Carl Theodor Dreyer, tried to create a version from outtakes and surviving prints, but died before he was able to finish it. It was only in 1981 that a complete version was discovered in a mental institution in Norway that it became available again. I did think it was a strange place for such a movie to turn up as Falconetti’s expression, with her big eyes, are sometimes quite unsettling and wouldn’t think this is a movie that would be shown in such a place as it could freak you out. Although it’s not a movie that’s for everyone, it moves along quite slowly and silent movies sometimes can be hard to watch, it’s nice to see that this very important piece of cinematic history can be enjoyed again.

Score: 8

4 thoughts on “The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

  1. Great review and thanks for sharing. I’m looking forward to watching this as it’s on my IMDb challenge list but I’m struggling to get hold of a copy, without paying an abouslte premium for an import that is!

    Where did you find a copy?

  2. I have been wanting to see this for a long time. It’s just the kind of silent movie I love and yearn for. Thanks for reminding me, I’ll bump it up on my list.

    • I have not read up yet on this time period of cinema, so it’s so hard to imagine what the state of it was at the time and what was already possible, but this did feel very unique.

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