The Passion of Joan of Arc

Renée Jeanne Falconetti's face is in your head, whether you realize it or not. Its contours and stipples, topped by hair devoid of substance or style—her head centered by two wide eyes rimmed with tears, in a superposition between ecstasy and misery —consume boundless space in Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer's silent masterpiece, seemingly suspended over the long course of history between now (whenever now happens to be) and when Dreyer first envisioned this immersive, expressionist experience. "What mattered was getting the viewer engrossed in the past," Dreyer stated of his film, adding, "A detailed study of the records from the rehabilitation process was important.

Though Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is based on the 1491 transcripts of its titular saint's heresy trial (the director was welcomed by the Société Générale des Films to make a film in France, his choice of subject bolstered by France's canonization of Joan of Arc after World War I), he provides little visual detail or historical context. Instead, he immerses the audience in Joan's point of view, keeping his hand on his head while sinking in the agony of what she's been exposed to, seldom releasing his grip till in the film's last minutes, when Joan's death at the stake sparks widespread mayhem.

Detailed Information:
Year: 1928
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Stars: Renée Jeanne Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Antonin Artaud, Maurice Schultz
Rating: NR
Runtime: 82 minutes