A Hideously Bleak Freakshow

Rating: 6/10 (12 March 2018)

With Danish director, Carl Dreyer clearly going against the grain here in direct defiance of glamour and beauty - I'd say that as a perceptive film-maker - He was also something of a sadist to deliberately drag his audience through such an unpleasant religious-based hell as this.
I mean - What an absolutely damning statement about the hypocrisy of Christianity this film's story inevitably made.
Now 90 years old - This hideously bleak freakshow of stark, barren sets and unflattering close-ups sort of reminded me (in an odd way) of David Lynch's "Eraserhead".
For me - The undeniably best moment in this truly unpleasant, yet strangely compelling, cinematic experience was, of course, Joan's tear-filled head-shaving scene.
I think it's interesting to note that actress, Renee Falconetti (who played the Joan character) said that she never understood all of the positive reaction to her performance.