Product: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Region 2) (1999)
Rating: 5.0
WOW!
I have seen the movie twice within a week, and will see it acouple of more times. I was shivering through the whole movie, it wasso real for me. ... how 'clean' Joan was. First, at the beginning of the film it turns out that she had been to the priest for the third time that day, to confess. Later on the knights do not understand her when she says 'I want to confess. I have not confessed ... today yet' - if your really pay attention, for the environment this is very strange. And, at the end of the movie, she confesses her 'crimes' again. What I want to point out that she had a very strong conscience and she intended to keep it clean. This makes her a candidate to be Saint - as she was given this title 500 years later.This movie IS about reality, the betraying of Joan included. This is what I liked the most (the film being so real).Further on, every split second of the movie is communicating something. If you watch closely, the faces, the looks of the actors, the music, are constantly telling you a part of the story, a message. Perfect timing features the cutting of this film. The conflicts are precisely designed. The actors are perfectly matching their roles. I admit, that the ending is a bit long, but basically it stresses the suppressive behaviour of the inqusition of that time.Milla plays just perfectly. In this version of the Joan of Arc movies she is what she is and that is it. Luc Besson had an idea in mind and she realises it.If you like Luc Besson, Milla Jovovich, Eric Serra, history, middle age, or if you are a rebel, this is a must for you.The more you appreciate art the more you are going to like this movie.Finally: this movie is fine art in itself, a classic piece. But you have to like the style Luc Besson paints...