Joan of Arc
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Movie Reviews of Joan of Arc
Movie Review: The Maid who was sent from Heaven to support her failing France...
Summary: 4 Stars
We are in 1429, period of the "Hundred Years War" between France and England... The story follows the well-known outlines of the short life of the 15th century French saint, Joan of Arc...
Guided by divine Voices, the visionary daughter of a plowman, Joan (Ingrid Bergman), wearing men's clothes, leaves Domremy her village town in Lorraine and takes her long journey to Chinon to meet the Dauphin Charles VII (Jose Ferrer).
Inspired by God to free France from the ravages of the invading English, the peasant girl persuades the indecisive Dauphin to recruit an army and run out the ruthless invaders clearing the way for him to be crown King of France...
Joan leads the French Army to victory over the English forces at Orleans and stands proudly besides her king - as she promised - at his coronation in Rheims' Cathedral...
The Maid's followers believed that she came from God and the Burgundians and English were stricken with fear at her success... But Charles was tricky, ambition and deceitful in his goals... A counterplot was at work as a mean truce is suddenly signed with England, frustrating Joan's zeal to rid France of the enemy...
In an ironic twist of fate, the Maid of Lorraine becomes a political prisoner... She is closely guarded and kept in irons, and is tried as a witch by an English-dominated church court...
With no council to aid her, except her Voices, we see the intrigued illiterate girl, pitted against Bishop Pierre Cauchon (Francis L. Sullivan) trained in all the complexities of legal exhausting questioning...
We may ask ourselves how so many ideas and intuitions are to be found in a person so simple as she was saintly... Joan is, above all things else, the wisdom of a good people... She is the people of France, the plain people of the countryside of Lorraine which is sweet and clean through the courage and faith of the people as much as through the smell of woods and orchards...
Ingrid Bergman portrays with deep conviction her role as the delicate innocent virgin who raised the spirit of the French to hope for better times... She curbed savage England and stopped the spoiling and burning of France... Bergman's smiling face invoked spiritual revelation, the required light of a charismatic true heroine...
Movie Review: Restored epic tells Joan's story sincerely, honestly
Summary: 4 Stars
This DVD hasn't been released yet, but from the details that are supplied it looks to be the complete theatrical roadshow version that has been unavailable in the US, at least, for 35 years or longer (I have faint memories of seeing this on TV, in two parts, in the Sixties). Finally! I understand that this has involved a major film restoration project and will hope that the technical results have been worth it, since this is the best English-language Joan of Arc film to have been made, still. (More recent films have been marred by slipshod performances, weak scripts, and dubious historical accuracy at best.) This movie has been previously released on home video in a criminally butchered 100-minute version and even that is long out of print. This important movie belongs in the collection of anyone with a serious interest in learning something about the life and career of Jeanne d'Arc.
Update, May 21, 2004: The DVD is available now; I have viewed about half of this so far and can report that it is a spectacular job of film restoration. The colors are vivid and distinct, the image sharp, and the soundtrack clear and distinct even in its monophonic mix. This 56-year old Technicolor movie looks like it was released last week. All the fantastic detail work in the backgrounds, costumes, and matte paintings is clearly visible and Ingrid glows more beatifically than ever before. (She may not be the definitive screen Joan, but she was certainly one of the most sincere in her approach.) The DVD includes no special features but a box insert briefly describes the history of the film's production and restoration. A superb job for this deserving epic.
Movie Review: Ingrid Bergman In One Of Her Best Remembered Roles As "The Maid of Orleans".
Summary: 4 Stars
Joan of Arc, the Patron Saint of France and a young girl long revered by the French as the saviour of their country in the Middle Ages is certainly a lofty character for any actress to try and portray on screen. Many versions of this extraordinary girl's life have been put onto film stretching right back to the silent era but as so little is really known of her character and what she actually looked like; each of these screen interpretations is at best a partial recreation of this incredible young girl. The Victor Fleming 1948 version for RKO starring Ingrid Bergman in one of her most famous roles is still one of the best known versions and it certainly has gathered both its admirers and critics over the years since its initial release. The chief criticism of "Joan of Arc", centred around its sound stage bound appearance and the fact that Ingrid Bergman was 33 years of age when she portrayed the teenage peasant girl who led the French armies to victory. Despite these obvious failings I feel the film still has much to offer and Ingrid Bergman in a role she had already played on stage gives a wonderfully sincere and restrained performance as the young maid who saved France from England's occupying forces only to be later burnt as a witch.Movie Review: JOAN OF mal-ARC-key
Summary: 3 Stars
For those of you who've seen Maria Falconetti in the 1928 French silent picture THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, you will no doubt feel disappointed in this movie starring Ingrid Bergman. Although the earlier movie focused only on her trial and execution, this update covers more of her life, but with much less verve and fervency.
Bergman is the maid of Lorraine who convinces the Dauphin (Charles VII) that divine voices have commanded her to lead the French army against the English. Bergman has a bewildered look about her that is always on the verge of becoming hand-wrenching: there is little strength of character behind her (one assumes she would need plenty), except for maybe in the one battle scene. In fact, that scene is just about the only rousing thing in the whole picture.
The burning at the stake climax, where passion is absolutely required (and where Falconetti achieved screen immortality) is reduced by Bergman to tears and talk. At least they restored the thing to its rightful 145 minutes; the cut version (which is what the VHS copies are, usually), which was 45 minutes shorter, was a travesty (the cuts were done so crudely you could actually see where they were made). Skip this and track down the silent picture with Falconetti if you want to see a great screen version of Joan of Arc.
Movie Review: Beautifully restored, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
Victor Fleming's Joan of Arc, even in this beautifully restored version, isn't much to write home about. Maxwell Anderson's play was creaking at the timbers even in 1948, and the screenplay remains resolutely theatrical despite one good battle scene. Ingrid Bergman is okay in her quiet moments, but handles her big declamatory scenes with extreme clumsiness - it's one of those performances where you can all too easily spot where she's marked her script, and too often it's more about hitting artificial cues than giving a fluid or convincing reading. If anything, you find yourself wondering why her nose looks so big all the time and marvel at how the more inspired Joan is, the more Swedish she sounds. Instead, the film belongs to Jose Ferrer, making a remarkable debut as the weak and feminine Dauphin. It's watchable enough, but there's a cosy feeling about the film: even the burning at the stake seems more photogenic than horrendous. Still, it's fun to see Dennis Hoey playing something other than Inspector Lestrade for a change!