La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterpiece is an austere but extremely moving film based on the account of the trial of Joan of Arc in the fifteenth century.
LA PASSION DE JEANNE D'ARC was Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s first film in France. Dreyer made this silent film at a time when sound film was gaining the upper hand. The film follows the trial and execution of resistance hero Joan of Arc, the woman allegedly sent by God to drive the English out of France. During the trial, Joan was pressured to confess that she was a heretic, and that her mission was not inspired by God but by the devil.
Dreyer shows the trial in extreme close-ups; the fear and determination can be read from the face of lead actress Renée Falconetti. Few filmmakers have managed to make their protagonist’s agony as tangible as Dreyer. Jean-Luc Godard paid tribute to Dreyer in VIVRE SA VIE (1962), in which Anna Karina’s character is moved to tears when watching this classic. Long thought to have been lost by fire, the original version of LA PASSION DE JEANNE D'ARC was miraculously recovered in perfect condition in a Norwegian psychiatric institution in 1981.