The Eyes Have It (and the music helps too...)

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2005)

I go to the movies to feel more human. I want to see on screen what I feel inside my heart, and when a film expresses emotion so authentically--so real--that I am moved to tears, then that is the highest praise I can give.
Falconetti's portrayal of Joan is what everyone else has said: powerful, sensitive, and moving. Her eyes burn up the screen. In them, you see Joan's struggle for truth and justice, and her love of God. In a less capable actress, Joan would come across as vapid, insane, or fanatical, but Falconetti takes you to the precipice of your emotions and it is a mystical experience to watch.
Dreyer's direction is visionary. Unlike most silent films, it is wonderfully modern in its use of close ups of Falconetti. Beyond these remarkable closeups, Dreyer has a great visual sense, most notably in two pivotal scenes: the torture chamber, which gets your heart pumping, and the climax/finale, where you feel for Joan and then it rouses you (like the crowd) to anger. The film's sets are spare and white, not unlike a sanitarium, which gives you a sense of the trapped sensation that Joan must have felt in her last days on earth.
Buoying this work of art is Richard Einhorn's score, "Voices of Light," which although not the original musical accompaniment to the film, it was inspired by the film. The score is worthy in its own right and it adds considerably to the film's impact.
The backstory how this lost film was "found" in a mental institution is worthy of further investigation. I commend the Criterion Collection for producing a superlative DVD with nice features normally not reserved for silent films.