The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc
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.
Mike reviewedOctober 11, 2024
The Passion of Joan of Arc is a film that tells a captivating story through emotionally intrusive cinematography and an overwhelming score
"How do you know a good angel from an evil angel?"
The story is very captivating and has your full attention from beginning to end, this is mainly due to the unique visual storytelling. The plot is simple, but this film being a story driven narrative wit a very noticable focus on the visual aspect, it doesn't need to be anything more. The most important thing it needs to do is to support the story with structure and good pacing, so the viewer can be immersed into the story. It all does this very well.
This film is centered around judgement. This is not only noticable in the story and plot, but also in the cinematography. The cinematography visualizes the judgemental expressions of the men towarch Joan. Even without dialogue we can visually see a strong interaction between Joan and the men. This is something I really appreciated, especially since there is no dialogue.
The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous and places its focus on intimately sharing emotions with the viewer, which is extremely impactful and can even be intrusive at times. The compositions are beautifully framed. The blocking of the characters within the static frames create a lot of depth. Not only is this visually pleasing, but it also creates physical layers of emotions and expressions within a single frame. There are also shots that are more dynamic. In these shots the camera is staged to move along the different men, revealing them one by one. The men that appear within the frame are not moving, the camera is the only object that moves. These shots feel like dynamic snapshots of strong expressions and emotions that are frozen in time. This way the multiple emotions and expressions are the main focus of the shots, which stimulates the viewer to absorb and process them, leaving an even stronger emotional impact.
The close-ups of Joan are very intrusive and emphasize her emotions, which has a lot of impact on the viewer, especially considering that her performance is really good. Joan didn't show us a wide variety of emotions and facial expressions, but the ones we did see felt very strong and real. The lighting on her face is soft, which results in less shadows and places the focus on her more detailed eyes. The lighting contrast on the faces of the men are the complete opposite. These create harsh shadows that accentuate their faces and facial expressions better. This is especially noticable in the close-up shots. For me personally it gave the men an aggressive look and Joan a more innocent look, which is also how they behaved within the story.
Read full review at Letterboxd: Mike_v_E