Sometimes it only takes a few
frames to realise that you’re in for a treat. This was the case for me with
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 masterpiece The
Passion of Joan of Arc. It is however a film that I’d put off watching for
a long time. Despite my interest in silent cinema and all the great things I’d read
and heard, there was something about what little I knew of the film that put me
off. Perhaps it was the subject matter (more on that later) or the idea that it
would be a depressing and/or dull watch but either way it took a good five
years from my first whiff of the film to actually sitting down to watch it.
What a silly boy I was for those five years. Like many other renowned films
that I’d put off viewing it is of course a superb movie that features some of
the best acting, editing and camera placement I’ve ever seen.
The film tells of the
imprisonment, trial and (spoiler) execution of Joan of Arc (Noah’s wife) who
claimed divine guidance and lead France to several important military victories
during the Hundred Year’s War before being captured by the English and tried
for heresy, all by the age of nineteen. The film draws on the five hundred year
old transcripts of the trial and indeed original documents form the basis of the
script.
