Simply devastating

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2006)

In "The Passion of Joan of Arc," Carl Theodor Dreyer elects to tell the story of Joan's trial not through action or dialogue (or title cards, as this a silent film), but through faces. His simple but mesmerizing technique is to place the actors in rooms with stark white walls, film them in extreme close-up, and assemble the film by alternating images of Joan with those of her interrogators. The bare white set contrasts with the actors' faces, which are filmed in such detail that their flesh almost becomes tangible, and reveals everything you need to know. The craggy, warty faces of Joan's interrogators suggest human menace and evil, without the actors ever assuming an overtly menacing expression.
Renee Maria Falconetti, playing Joan, is required to go through the entire film with the camera focused tightly on her bare face as it registers all the infinite nuances of anguished but steadfast faith. Tears often roll down her cheeks, yet she never forces them out of her by sobbing, or tries to hold them back by closing her eyes. The openness of her face, the involuntary flow of her tears, help establish Joan's saintliness: it feels as though she suffers and weeps not for herself, but for the whole world. The moment when Joan, alone in her cell, realizes that she must become a martyr, is an extraordinary piece of acting.
Famous theater director and theorist Antonin Artaud appears here as a young, compassionate monk. At first I thought it ironic that the founder of the "Theater of Cruelty" should play one of the least cruel characters in the movie; however, after doing a little research on Artaud, I noticed similarities between his theories and this film. Artaud wanted theater to be an intense, cathartic, spiritual experience, relying on emotion and gesture rather than text, using physical means to achieve a metaphysical purpose. I can think of no better summation of "The Passion of Joan of Arc," than to say that it is the cinematic equivalent of this. Its almost ritualistic evocation of pure suffering produces an emotional effect that few other films achieve.