Product: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Region 2) (1999)
Rating: 5.0
$50 Million Arthouse Film
"The Messenger" may be my all-time favorite film. It got terrible reviews in the U.S., and was poorly received by the American public. It garnered rave reviews in France, the newspaper Liberation calling it Luc Besson's finest film. This despite its portrayal of an iconic figure in French history as a schizophrenic unguided missile. And apparently in Iceland it's the number 7 bestseller, according to Amazon.comSo what gives?First, this is not a religious picture. If you want the life of a saint, do not see this film. If you want a conventional take on the story of Joan of Arc, do not see this film. There have been plenty of other movies made about the Maid of Orleans that tell the conventional story of the hero / saint.Besson's film takes a secular, intensely psychological approach. He treats Jeanne as tragic figure. She is manic, driven, restless, profoundly unhappy. A fascinating character. She is an outsider; her companions in arms come to have tremendous respect for her, they are devoted to her, but they do not understand her. She does not understand herself. And therin lies the tragedy.This film is unconventional in its treatment of an overly-conventionalized subject. The dialogue is modern, there is no attempt to make it sound like ye olde medieval speech. Dustin Hoffman, appearing in the last part of the movie, plays her consicence, her Freudian confessor. Guilt and confession play a major part in this film. It is not the story of a plaster saint.