Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

VividSimon Simply Perfect

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

CinemaClown Watching The Passion of Joan of Arc without any musical score to accompany its drama really makes you see the true potential of images like never before, and the emotional impact it can have on the audience when done right. Widely considered as a cinematic landmark, this French silent classic still retains a mystical power.Set in 15th century France during the Hundred Years' War, the story of The Passion of Joan of Arc chronicles the trial of Jeanne d'Arc following her arrest. Charged with heresy, she is interrogated by French clergymen loyal to the English who attempt to force her to recant her claims of holy visions, and ultimately execute her when she refuses.Written & directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, the film employs a number of filmmaking techniques that were unconventional for its time and the script itself is adapted from the original transcripts of Joan's infamous trial. Dreyer narrates the plot with minimal dialogues, utilising the intertitles only when it's a necessity, and sustains our interest with inventive camerawork.By employing extreme close-ups of the characters' faces shot from low angles, the camera manages to properly convey the mood of the ongoing trial while the minute details & varying expressions on characters' faces only adds to the unfolding drama. Editing provides a steady pace to its set of events though there are times when the scenes feel somewhat repetitive.Coming to the performances, The Passion of Joan of Arc is Maria Falconetti's show all the way. Playing the role of Jeanne d'Arc from inside out, Falconetti delivers what may as well be the pinnacle of expressionistic acting, for she illustrates Joan's inner turmoil with such authenticity as if she herself was on brink of emotional collapse. It is a truly unforgettable performance that's finely supported by the rest of the cast.On an overall scale, The Passion of Joan of Arc is a powerfully moving & thoroughly compelling picture that uses the human face as its storytelling device and succeeds amazingly well. Despite being 90 years old, it packs a strength that's highly evident when you are watching it while Maria Falconetti's emotionally resonant performance is a stuff of legends in itself. The absence of score may make its 82 minutes runtime a tough sit for some but this silent classic is every bit worthy of its legendary status.

Theflyace Roger Ebert once said that "to see Falconetti in Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is to look into eyes that will never leave you." I cannot find a better statement for this miracle of a silent masterpiece. What has been mastered here is a view, taken from historical record, and put under a microscope figuratively and literally on screen to dive into the spiritual essence of destiny. This film is in a class by itself, and had a profound impact on this viewer.The film begins during the 100 Years War in France. In its battle against its enemy England, a commoner rose through the ranks to lead France to many great victories. This great warrior was peasant girl Joan of Arc, not even 18 years old but commanded a presence among her peers and a reputation impressed upon her enemies. Joan has been promised French deliverance from the mouth of God himself. Captured and put on what is essentially a mock trial for the whole film (she would have most likely been executed anyway) she must stand firm against the cacophony of priests who at first spit at her and call her a demon who cries blasphemy. Soon however, when she is given the chance to free herself at the expense of her devout belief in God and refuses, the film becomes a tragedy of the rest form, a good person making the ultimate sacrifice to something bigger than anyone in this film can possibly imagine. The mastery of this film's narrative is in its reliance on the extreme close-up, which i can only estimate takes up 95% of the film. Director Dryer and cinematographer Rudolf Mate take a radical approach to the film, which has stood the test of time as one of the most daring films ever made. Joan's face as well as the other characters fill the frame, and what was not normal for the silent films, the actors do not wear any make-up at all. What this gives is confinement in the audience, as wee are as locked in this small blank room as Joan is, thus helping us feel the emotions of the scenes and care for the main character in a unique way. We cannot look away from the faces, especially that of Joan's astonishingly beautiful eyes.What stands out in this film is the central performance of Maria Falconetti as Joan of Arc. When she enters the picture, she does not look like a common heroine. She has short hair, no make-up, and no soft lighting to make her "gorgeous." In this way, Falconetti must communicate a visceral reaction and emotions through her facial expressions, and since she is always in close-up, this cannot escape and she cannot cheat. With this said, this is a truly flawless performance, in fact one of the greatest films I have ever seen in Cinema history. When she does stumble and ultimately does the "morally right" thing, I broke down in tears, quite rarely have I ever had so much respect and heartbreak over a person I never knew. This is a bravura performance that I cannot praise enough.The Passion of Joan of Arc is a miracle, and when given again the fact that it was made in the 1920s, this is even more astonishing. Please see this film and judge for yourself.Note: I am sorry I haven't written in a long time. College and work is murder and time must be put elsewhere quite a lot. But I intend to write more and this film helped me rekindle the flame that git me to doing this in the first place - Theflyace"

OliverBagshaw A truly beautiful and powerful film of such an influential and admirable status that not many films could ever achieve such praise. Dreyer's vision with The Passion Of Joan Of Arc is still recognised as one of the greatest pieces of filmmaking in existence.Falconetti's performance as Jeanne d'Arc is widely accepted as one of the greatest performances ever committed to film and it should be very clear as to why. Her performance is very restrained, subtle and mature, providing distinctive character development, understanding and empathy through only her facial expression. The silent era was one where over-acting had become common but her performance did not follow such a convention and even by today's standards it's still a beautifully restrained performance. Her face and eyes are so expressive and emotional that they speak louder than any dialogue ever could, and with the film's cinematography focusing on extreme close-ups of the characters' faces, it emphasises the power that Falconetti could harness through such acting. The close-ups also allow us, as viewers, to pay attention to every facial twitch of Jeanne d'Arc throughout the film, adding to the emotional torture that she must have faced.The film is beautiful in every respect, from its cinematography's focus on extreme close-ups, its supporting character performances and even the few moments you truly glance at the set design and decorations. It all contributes wonderfully to Dreyer's vision of the trial of Joan of Arc, but the highlight for me, along with many other viewers, is certainly Falconetti's performance. It's honestly heartbreaking when the inevitably tragic ending is portrayed as for the brief time we, as viewers, have been watching the film, it certainly feels like we have got to know who both Jeanne d'Arc and Falconetti are and that she has opened herself up to the world - her performance is one of the most genuine performances I've ever had the pleasure of viewing.I definitely recommend this film, whether you're curious about acting, cinematography or silent cinema, this should definitely be essential viewing.

Steve Pulaski Part of what makes The Passion of Joan of Arc so bold and unflinching, for its time and its current state in cinema, is, much like its titular subject, how battered, beaten, and kicked around it has been in order to get where it is today. This is a film that, from its very inception, was a controversial subject that clerical authorities didn't want to be seen by a wide audience, for its portrayal of religion and politics. Nonetheless, writer/director Carl Theodor Dreyer pushed forward in a direction for a film on Joan of Arc that detailed the gap between religion and politics, in addition to insights into the complex of the fragile male ego that boasts assimilation and manipulation. After the completed and finalized print was lost in a fire, it was doubtful that a print even close to the original would ever resurface until one was discovered in a mental institution in Oslo, Norway in the 1980's. After some cleaning up and polish was added, the film was restored into an eighty-one minute cut, which is said to be very close to the original film's length and structure.Dreyer's focus in The Passion of Joan of Arc was precisely what the title suggests; an intimate and often harrowing portrayal of the agony the French heroine (played ever-so tenderly by Renée Jeanne Falconetti) endured following her unfair trial after the Hundred Years' War. Dreyer sees no point or purpose in showcasing sweeping battle sequences nor does he see it fit to detail Joan of Arc's story in a series of "greatest hits" moments that ultimately ends in a corrupt sentencing. Instead, Dreyer places us, the audience, in an awkward position throughout; we are practically voyeurs into the trial and sentencing of Joan of Arc, who we witness subjected to enough physical and mental torment to shatter one's entire self-worth. As she takes a stand for her faith and her beliefs of her own personal sainthood and relationship with God, she is bludgeoned and abused by an all-male jury and various authorities before being sentenced to death by being consumed by fire.The Passion of Joan of Arc can be viewed in two basic forms; in its original form, with no dialog, or a modified, Criterion Collection version that adds accompanying orchestration from Richard Einhorn called "Voices of Light" (which was my audio-track companion) throughout the film. Einhorn's score provides well-timed parallels in sound and musicality to events transpired on-screen, and the symphonic blend of instruments at various times adds to the cacophony of emotions and tones throughout the picture in a way that wouldn't be as impacting, I feel, with an empty audio-track. Dreyer's film has far too much potential for impact to be viewed in complete and utter silence.Dreyer's decision to focus largely on facial expressions and the facial personalities of characters almost overshadows the complex work of his and Rudolph Maté's in the cinematography department. At the time of its release, The Passion of Joan of Arc erected one of the most expensive and immaculately detailed film sets in the history of cinema, with its construction of the famous Rouen Castle taking most of Dreyer's seven million franc budget on the film. Having said that, the detail in the background of the film is almost as important as the detail in the foreground, with hulking walls and set architecture towering over the characters in the film like a bitter and obvious presence. The walls are nothing more than helpless witnesses to the atrocious treatment of a very confident woman; so confident she makes her male counterparts squirm with inferiority and fear.Out of eighty-one minutes, probably a good forty or forty-five are Dreyer's camera lingering and depicting the facial and emotional reactions of Joan of Arc. Dreyer allows us to zero in on Joan of Arc's emotional responses as a way of peeling back the events of this film and revealing a tender, more human side that can often get lost in the shuffle. This is also likely why Dreyer forgoes the conventional battle sequences the Hundred Years' War practically loans itself to on film; it doesn't work to detail the kind of grounded human interest in the film.Finally, there's the concept of male ego that Dreyer subtly explores here. Consider how manipulated Joan of Arc becomes shortly after allowing herself to be tried for blasphemous remarks about her alleged sainthood and her relationship with God. Her trial was never intended to be fair, but instead, a circus for masculinity to triumph over a defenseless woman who was never going to be heard out on anything she had to say. As a result, the males of the court room decide to shame her, cutting off all her hair and physically and mentally abusing her in a barbaric manner that shows little else besides dominance over the meek and powerless in a cruel situation.The result is a heartbreaking film that grabs you with an all-too-real depiction of a time period frequently obscured by the lingo of textbooks and droll college lectures thanks to Dreyer's human approach and intimate focus on facial expressions and steadfast realism. It's only fitting that The Passion of Joan of Arc endured such a brutal life trying to gets its message out to a wide audience; it perfectly replicates the struggle and fight of its titular character.Starring: Renée Jeanne Falconetti. Directed by: Carl Theodor Dreyer.