Seeing Joan of Arc today remains a cinematic revelation, its approach to storytelling, set design, editing, and especially cinematography (by Rudolph Mate, who also shot Dreyer's visionary Vampyr) radical then, and still strikingly modern many decades later. Influenced by both German expressionist film and the French avant-garde, Dreyer's huge set was designed with asymmetrical doors, windows, and arches, through which Mate's camera moves along equally off-centered, even vertiginous, but fluid trajectories. Although the story is epic in its implications, the film is composed primarily of extreme close-ups, especially of Joan and her principal interrogator, Bishop Cauchon, and medium shots of small groups, often shot from low angles. Dreyer and Mate shot their cast in bright light, without makeup, giving each wrinkle, blemish, or tuft of hair sculptural detail.

For all its visual invention, however, Dreyer's film is most devastating in its central performance by Falconetti (nee Renee Falconetti), a French stage actress who made her only screen appearance here--one critic Pauline Kael has suggested "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film." Through Falconetti, Joan's spiritual devotion, simple dignity, and suffering become utterly real; even without a dialogue track and only sparse inter-titles, the film achieves a fevered eloquence.

This meticulous restoration also includes composer Richard Einhorn's beautiful oratorio, Voices of Light, inspired by Dreyer's film and set to texts by women mystics from medieval and early-Renaissance Europe. A luminous work on its own, Einhorn's oratorio matches both the dramatic arcs and tremulous emotions of Dreyer's film, while its juxtaposition of choral and solo voices (with early-music vocal quartet Anonymous 4 evoking Joan herself) echoes the martyr's confrontation with the court. --Sam Sutherland

Other reviews have said that "Passion" was the best of the films of Joan of Arc, and after viewing this masterpiece directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer (cq), it's hard to think that something better could be out there.

Five stars across the board for the presentation, quality (sound and video) and for the film itself, which is one that demands the most caring team to make certain that a DVD presentation is of the best quality. This comes from the Criterion Collection, and make no mistake about it, they did what this archive in cinematic achievement demanded.

The DVD contains a digitally restored, black and white transfer from an original negative which was discovered in 1981 in a Norwegian mental institution (perhaps the person who hid this gem was not crazy, after all). Originally a silent movie, the film is accompanied by a digital stereo composition performed by Anonymous 4 with soloist Susan Narucki and the Radio Netherlands Philharmonic and Choir. The audio, which is optional to the viewing of "Passion" is GORGEOUS. The music alone is worth the price of admission.

Included with the DVD is a "Voices of Light" libretto booklet. Kudos to composer Richard Einhorn. If you're reading this, I'd love your autograph. This work is a "must have" in a serious collector of cinematic (and orchestral) genius, so if you're both, kill both birds with the same stone.

For the movie, I was stunned at the cinematic approach to filming "Passion." This is why I am certain that no one has come to within the state border of being close to the depth of passion that pours out of EVERY frame. From the opening scene to the bitter end, this DVD keeps you involved. By the end, you may be in tears, as I was. Lead actress Renee Falconetti (imdb database has her listed as Maria Falconetti) is flawless in her role as Joan of Arc, and it's simply a pity that her nature kept her away from acting. She only made two films (according to the imdb database, "La Comtesse de Somerive" [1917] was her first) and "Passion" was her second. It seemed as though she became Joan from the start, and as she presented her role, she seemed to almost be consumed by the spirit of Joan's demise herself. I wonder if Falconetti was all but traumatized by the structure in which she had to act the part? A website said that she fled her country during World War II for Buenos Aires, where she lived until 1946.

For those interested in filmmaking, this movie MUST BE SEEN. Repeat that sentence, which bears repeating. To this day, you will not see the wonderfully filmed and lit scenes, credited by Rudolph Mate, director of photography. The filming doesn't go by the book, because in 1928, no book was even written on filmmaking. Today, I wish more directors and DP's would go more by the books of Dreyer and Mate.

Technical details: This is ONLY for the Criterion Collection version: Transfer of an original print, via digital restoration; 82 minutes, B&W (no colorization) at its original screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (which is now TV format ratio); French intertitles and optional English subtitles; optional silent- viewing or the digital stereo 5.1 surround of "Voices of Light," which was written for "Passion"; optional audio commentary by Univ. of Copenhagen Dreyer scholar Casper Tybjerg; audio interview with Falconetti's daughter; details on the film's restoration (with video comparisons); video essay on "Voices of Light"; 3- page dual- sided pamphlet which includes a small passage that Th. Dreyer wrote; 25- page "Voices of Light" libretto booklet; plus a Criterion catalog.


I could write 10,000 words of praise for this masterpiece!!!   December 26, 2000
 86 out of 108 found this review helpful

Any arguments that film can never truly be an art film, end, after one views The Passion of Joan of Arc. Masterpiece is so mis-used these days a new word, to be used on perhaps only a handful of films needs to be coined so I can emphasize this is among the finest films you will ever experience in your life. It's a silent film. A stark, stylistic, unique film. A film as timeless as the finest opera or ballet performance anyone has ever seen. A film that broke the still developing rules of film-making in 1928 and still feels innovative, daring and impassioned today.

A film any lover or student of film must not miss seeing

The images of the faces from this film are ones you will never forget. Whether you have seen the previously available murky video taken from a damaged print of the film or the beautiful and meticulously restored version recently released on a Criterion Series DVD.

There is one face, above all others, however, that will be remembered alongside any of the faces imprisoned on the screen within your head and that is the face of Renee Maria Falconetti. And Pauline Kael was right when she said: "It may be the finest performance ever recorded on film.''

Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968), the Danish director was preparing a large budgeted film on the life of Joan of Arc in 1927. He became fascinated however with the actual preserved transcripts of Joan's 1431 trial and began constructing a film that would include them in its narrative. He at one point was seriously considering American Silent Film star Lilian Gish for the role of Joan. The French were already outraged that the Danish Dreyer would be directing a film about their recently Sainted Joan, but to have an American actress portray Saint Joan? What an outrage!!! Dreyer let the rumors persist even after he had made a little known theater performer who specialized in light comedy and cabaret shows, his Joan of Arc.

Falconetti would become immortal (though she would never make another film, the ambitious theater company she started would become a financial failure and she would die in Rio Di Janero in 1946). Falconetti, who wore no make-up, and was filmed in sometimes unflinching close-ups and would become one of the most famous faces, one of the most praised actresses of all time, for one film.

One film.

This one.

And she would never make another one.

Director Dreyer would release the film without credits, and without a chosen music score to be played along with it's showing. The film has almost no establishing shots (it does have one of the torture room which still lacks enough of a perspective to give the viewer a conventional idea of room size however) and rely's almost entirely on stark close-ups of some of the most interesting and fascinating faces you have ever seen in any painting, photograph, or on film. Faces without make-up. Dreyer forbid the use of make-up on the film. It may sound positively Dogme95 to some.

It was 1928.

The film is based with a great deal of meticulous accuracy on the 29 cross examinations which led to Joan of Arc being burned as a witch at the stake in 1431. The film avoids any mention of witchcraft or the occult however. The film also condenses the 29 cross examinations into approximately 5, which is the number of reels the film runs (at 82 minutes). The film also ends with a riot that never actually occurred.

The film concerns itself with the trial of Joan and only the trial and results of the trial. There is no mention or flashback of the illiterate farm-hand from Orleans, who dressed as a boy, led French troops into defeat of the British occupation forces. How she was captured by Frenchmen who were loyal to the British and made to stand trial.

She was as the film shows, brought before a church court and charged with heresy. Joan believed she was the blessed daughter of God and had been inspired by heavenly visions. The church considered anyone who was certain they were going to heaven, to be a blasphemer. Anyone who did not need the church's blessing was undoubtedly possessed by Satan. Such people were ex-communicated, imprisoned and/or burned at the stake.

And so the defiant 19 year old girl, was made to stand trial and endure torture before being burned at the stake. She would become a recognized Saint in approximately 1914. 14 years prior to this film being made. Passion was one of more than a dozen silent films made about Joan of Arc. And some were well made exciting films that showed Joan bravely leading the French troops against the British.

This film did not.

This film was an extremely stylized film consisting mainly of close-ups. Over 1,500 edits were made in the film. The average film of the day consisted of 500 to 600 edits. A large budget was spent on the construction of a huge set, the largest set ever built at the time

Yet in the film, Dreyer never shows us but glimpses of the magnificent set he had spent millions on constructing.

There is nothing conventional about the film. Not then and not now. Dreyer uses stark close-ups and often breaks the rules of crossing camera sight lines to try and have us understand at least partially the fear and unbalance the 19 year old Joan was feeling when dozens of men, church leaders, politicians, and British soldiers, were interrogating her or trying to force her to sign a confession.

Everything about the interiors is stark and plain. Plain curved white walls which make even Dreyer's medium shots feel like close ups. Windows that are un-even and of slightly imperfect shapes (shades of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). Sometimes the bars in the window seem to resemble crosses, and sometimes crosses are seen as shadows on a floor or on a wall. Dreyer wants us not just to feel the oppression and fear of Joan, he wants us inside her head. He wants us to somehow hear her thoughts.

We do.

To make it all work, Dreyer had to have the perfect face, and had to be able to get a superior performance from a talented actress.

Falconetti.

Dreyer painstakingly over the course of a long six months shoot, extracted the performance he needed to have from Falconetti. He didn't let her or other actors use music to help inspire them as they performed (an accepted practice used by most film directors of the time). Dreyer didn't want the actors in this film to be `performing' or `acting'. He wanted something more pure and more natural. He forced Falconetti to shear her hair for the film. He made his actors shave the tops of their heads, because that was the style of the 1430's, even though most of the actors would be wearing skull caps and the audience would never know if the tops of their heads were shaven or not. Often he would excuse all but a few technicians and himself from the set to work with Falconetti , so she would give him the perfect expression he was looking for. Together they would watch dailies, so she would completely understand what he wanted from her. Dreyer was a perfectionist and wanted realism. People who worked with him often considered him not just intense, but insane. ( His best known films also include 1932's Vampyr and 1964's Gertrud). It's impossible to know what reaction this stark, demanding, unique, stylistic film had on the audiences of its day. Though one might imagine its power was even greater to an audience that was not raised with easy access to filmed and video taped entertainments. Critics quickly declared it a work of art, and even those who complained of it's over-use of close-ups rarely denied the film possessed an emotional power few films or stage plays could equal. It's a film which forces the viewer to experience a frightening perspective The perspective of a frightened, young, 19 year old religious martyr as she defiantly holds her ground against the nightmarish faces of her overly-righteous judges and tormentors. As Dreyer breaks the rules and violates even the camera's sight lines, the wall that separates the images on the screen, even these stylized stark black and white silent film images breaks apart and we can feel the fear, terror and coldness that Falconetti as Joan is experiencing. It was written, directed and edited by Carl Dreyer (though some of the original ideas in the screenplay Dreyer once contemplated filming remain). It was photographed by Rudolph Mate with art direction by Hermann Warm.

The film was re-edited a few times to appease the Catholic Church and also some censors during the late 20's and early 1930's. Dreyer who had hoped his film would be shown to a wide audience was disheartened his masterpiece was only appreciated by a small audience of rich entertainment patrons. Dreyer's original cut of the film was actually seen publicly only a few dozen times. The original elements were thought to be lost to fire long ago. So Dreyer himself went back and re-made the film from alternate cuts that were still available. But these versions of the film were sometimes cut, and became worn and deteriorated. Previous videos had been made from various pirated copies of the film. However, in 1981 an original Dreyer supervised ed


Dreyer and Einhorn - Perfect Together   January 15, 2000
 45 out of 47 found this review helpful

There's nothing to add to the chorus of high praise this masterpiece has already received, so I won't try. Just one point: the restored version features a new score, VOICES OF LIGHT. I'm not the biggest fan of grafting new music to vintage films - too often it's ill-fitting, adding nothing but a showy distraction to the narrative . Here it's a marriage made in Heaven. Absolutely the most moving and mesmerizing film score I've ever heard, greatly enhancing an already great movie. Viewers in 1928 were probably thunderstruck by Dreyer's vision and imagery, but Einhorn's score gives voice to Joan's inner devotion and faith, transforming this film of sexist persecution and religious hypocrisy into a true passion play of martyrdom. As for historical inaccuracies, remember that this is not a movie about Joan of Arc but about the Trial of Joan of Arc. It's not History but History refracted through slow glass for the purposes of Art.


Oh... my... God...   November 25, 1999
 25 out of 28 found this review helpful

The Passion of Joan of Arc is beyond what words can describe, and with the addition of Einhorn's Voices of Light.... *speechless* My paltry attempt to describe the effect this has had on me follows:

This is truly a masterpiece. The first half was truly incredible for me to experience, and from my first glance I was riveted and *could not take my eyes off the screen*. The camera angles and shots were astounding and marvelously done; Falconetti gives a masterful performance (her tremendously expressive eyes may be too intense for most people to handle though). The portrayal of the inquisitors was very harsh, but that is what they were like back then. As a Catholic, I am very proud of how this was portrayed - as _truth_, never mind what most Catholics think, never mind how they would rather sweep this under the rug and pretend the higher-ups could never be like this. I see the Holy Mother Church behaving in the same way these days, towards its women - we are wanting to do more and are not being allowed to by the "good old boys club." Maybe this is the reason Jehanne has surfaced again at this time, to show how little humanity has progressed in being/becoming fully human, both back in her time and even now?

I bought the CD the other month and was immediately entranced by the music. I have a degree in music education, and only one thing I heard in my undergraduate years (Poulenc's opera, The Dialogues of the Carmelites) even comes close to the musicality of this work, to moving me in the same way that this has. That even pales to Einhorn's masterpiece, in my opinion. It is SO totally different, viewing this movie when you know the music so well, and you know the intent and meaning behind the lyrics chosen... and you see the differences in the music with what's portrayed on the screen, what actually happened in real life according to the extremely accurate trial records. The music is the inner dialogue of what was going on spiritually and metaphysically, within and surrounding Jehanne (via her three saints), and the music paired up with what went on around her with the inquisitors and the trial, absolute WOW!

From the eighth track (Sacrament) on, I was absolutely devastated, both emotionally and physically. To see her voluntarily give up the one thing she held most dear in her life, to follow God's will.... so intensely powerful and moving, how this was portrayed. My heart not only absolutely broke in half, but it was exquisitely shattered into a bazillion pieces, over and over and over again. I am so glad that no one else was here to witness my catharsis, to see me breaking down in a state of almost reliving these scenes (that's how vivid this film is!), to hear my *very* vocally audible wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth during the entire second half, to see me shaking uncontrollably throughout the whole movie (and it's not just due to the cold weather!), not knowing exactly why at times even but having these reactions simply because this experience moved me in such a profound way... and the use of the term "profound" doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the extremely thin layer at the top of this smoldering volcano. (Heh, fire fire!)

I appreciated the lack of voices in the music during her abjuration, only to hear them come back after she recanted - very nice touch! The musical lines and vocal work in both Karitas and Anima especially reminded me a lot of Dialogues of the Carmelites, in that one solitary nun at the end of that work was true to herself as well, and with what that opera portrays combined with the music in these two pieces that reminded me VERY much of this other work, and what was happening in the film at this same time.... truly incredible. The scene at the marketplace during and after the burning had me awesomely silent and dumbstruck because these events actually historically happened, and if it was not like this then it sure as hell must have been extremely close. Powerful powerful stuff.

If you have the CD, the only noticeable differences in the music are instrumental additions in several places (after Homasse I believe, and at least during one other time). The jailers' theme also comes back in the film, in between the Pater Noster and the Torture tracks. The Torture part was slower in tempo on the video than it's portrayed in the CD. The CD is slightly less than 74 minutes long; according to the box the film is 82 minutes long. VERY moving, either way, and there is nothing majorly big lost just by listening to the CD. The meat of the music is all there still, but to get the true, full effect, this work of art is a must see.

I also liked how the video had the libretto to the music included with it, and that the video also featured a segment with Richard Einhorn and Anonymous 4 after the movie ended. I also immensely enjoyed the segment after that about the process of restoring the damaged film.

This is TRULY, truly a must have, for film buffs, historians, and musicians equally especially. You will never be the same after watching this, I guarantee. It's been almost two hours since the tape rewound, and I am still in shock and recovery and absolute AWE! I expect that I will be for some time. All the stars in the universe are not enough to rate this combined work.


Apocalypse Now!   August 20, 2004
 21 out of 21 found this review helpful

Well, this is certainly a film that can't be argued with. The Amazon reviews of this film have used up about every superlative there is. If ever a film screamed "classic", it has to be this one. I mean, damn, at one point the film was thought destroyed by fire, like Joan herself, only to be discovered in the closet of lunatic asylum - and in pristine condition, no less. Just as though God himself had placed the thing there for safe keeping. I surrender. The film is blessed.

I'll just add this for the perspective buyer that may be a bit intimidated by the bombast of the reviews: please don't assume this film will be like going to a required class. It truly is thrilling. The final scene, when Joan is burned, is one of the most gripping pieces of film-making I've ever scene. It builds and builds with quick edits, the camera suddenly moving like the eye of a terrified child, each image a bit more twisted and seared than the last, until finally you realize you are watching something mankind should not witness - the apocalypse descending on earth. As Kurtz would say, "The horror. The horror."

Worth the price of admission, wouldn't you say? --Mykal Banta