The Passion of Joan of Arc

Carl Theodor Dreyer, France, 1928, 110 minutes

The struggle and discord between institutionalised religion and individual faith is a theme which permeates Dreyer's work from his early Leaves from Satan's Book to his later work like Day of Wrath or The Word. There are though many reasons why The Passion of Joan of Arc itself is generally regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made: the unique structure of the film, the new dimension of expressionism which it introduced, as well as the memorable performance by Falconetti as Joan of Arc.

Dreyer deals here only with the last stages of her execution, which bears on the analogy with Christ's trial and crucifixion. The aesthetic and the emotional elements exist in a reciprocal relation whereby one depends on the other for its existence and effectiveness. Thus, the barren, almost completely undecorated settings are filled with the emotional anguish of the characters - priests, soldiers, crowd - giving the film a lyrical intensity. The dialectic between the material and the spiritual as well as the feelings of anger, despair, reverence and exaltation are all imprinted on every face giving Dreyer's film a truly expressionist character.

The martyrdom of Joan of Arc is also seen, far from its spiritual message, as a reference to the achievement of immortality for a whole nation, an idea which reaches its apogee in the last scenes of the film. The ability of Dreyer to construct images of immense spiritual tension makes The Passion of Joan of Arc an immeasurably moving film which, apart from its flawless aesthetics, reveals moments of profound erudition.

Review by Spiros Gangas
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93