There are great movies and then there are movies at completely different level

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2018)

The Passion of Joan of Arc is on a completely different level than other great films. It's haunting, terrifying and will break you down psychologically, the same way Joan of Arc was broken down during her trial. This is a masterpiece that breaks all sorts of filmmaking conventions that are rarely broken even today. In fact, the breaking those conventions are what make this film as great as it is.
It must be stated the feat that Dreyer pulled off in a technical and story sense. The Passion of Joan of Arc solely centers around Joan of Arc's trial and execution, not the battles and wars, but the trial itself. It's a dialog-driven courtroom drama told without sound. It is almost nonstop talking and there are very few title cards, yet you completely follow everything that is going on and said, even if you can't read lips or don't know the language. It's almost all close-ups without any establishing shots of peoples' faces. On top of that, the only surviving version of this film was created from the film's outtakes by Dreyer because the original version was banned, and from the outtakes, it's STILL one of the greatest film ever made, arguably the greatest ever.
This isn't just a movie, this is way beyond that. This is at such great heights that it transcends the medium itself.