The Passion of Joan of Arc
1928 · Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Original language: French
- drama
- history
The story
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
What it’s like
Stark black-and-white close-ups fill the frame, faces lit from above against bare white walls and plain dark stone, so that every tear and bead of sweat reads as a physical event. Long stretches of the film are built from tight, restless framings and sudden cuts between faces, with almost no music, only the rasp of breath, scraping benches and the creak of a door. The texture is grainy and sculptural, the sets austere and nearly empty, and the ornate ceremony of the court is shown as cold geometry of tables, robes and sneering profiles. The mood is harrowing and austere, a slow, relentless pressure that builds toward something grave and transcendent, not something comforting. Its intensity is high and emotionally punishing: interrogation, intimidation and threatened torture are conveyed mostly through faces and implication rather than gore, but the final act is harsh and deeply sorrowful. This is for viewers who want a serious, intensely human film about faith and endurance, approached in a quiet, contemplative frame of mind rather than as gentle entertainment.
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