Few films weaponize the human face like Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 masterpiece. Its runtime is an unrelenting assault of extreme close-ups and stark angles. Consequently, the viewer becomes an unwilling juror in the trial of a young woman. Her soul hangs in the balance, captured in one of cinema’s most legendary and harrowing performances.
Detailed Summary
The entire film documents the final days of Joan of Arc. It focuses exclusively on her intense trial for heresy at the hands of English-sympathizing French church officials in 1431. The narrative is therefore less about action and more about psychological and spiritual warfare.
The Interrogation
The film opens with Joan already captured. She is brought before a tribunal of dozens of clergymen. They bombard her with theological questions designed to trap her. For instance, they ask if she believes she is in God’s grace, a question with no correct answer. She cleverly responds, “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” Throughout these sessions, the camera remains fixated on the faces of the accusers and the accused. The judges are often shot from low angles, making them appear grotesque and menacing. In contrast, Joan is shot from slightly higher angles or directly, emphasizing her vulnerability.
Psychological Torment
Between interrogations, the film follows Joan into her cell. There, she endures mockery and abuse from her guards. The judges employ various tactics to break her spirit. First, they show her the torture instruments, hoping to frighten her into a confession. When that fails, a priest feigns sympathy, trying to trick her into admitting heresy. Furthermore, they bring her a letter supposedly from the King of France, which is a forgery. Joan, however, remains steadfast in her belief that her visions and voices are divine messages from God.
The Sickness and Recantation
The immense stress of the trial causes Joan to fall gravely ill. The judges, fearing she will die before they can secure a confession and execute her, have a doctor perform a bloodletting. Afterwards, they take the weakened Joan to the church cemetery. There, surrounded by a crowd and standing before a stake, a priest delivers a fiery sermon. He pressures her to sign a confession recanting her claims. Overwhelmed and fearing the fire, she ultimately relents. A court official guides her hand as she signs the document with a cross. Her sentence is consequently commuted to life in prison.
The Reversal
Back in her cell, guards forcibly shave Joan’s head. This act strips her of her last vestige of identity and dignity. This humiliation, however, becomes a turning point. She realizes that saving her life at the cost of her faith was a profound mistake. As a result, she tearfully tells a sympathetic priest that she has betrayed God. She renounces her confession completely, reaffirming that her visions were divine. The judges, infuriated by her defiance, swiftly declare her a relapsed heretic. Therefore, they sentence her to death by burning.
Movie Ending
The ending of The Passion of Joan of Arc is one of the most powerful sequences in silent cinema. After Joan renounces her confession, the judges condemn her to be burned at the stake. Priests give her Communion, and she is then led through a hostile crowd to the marketplace in Rouen. The camera captures the grief and compassion on the faces of some onlookers, contrasting sharply with the jeers of others. A title card poignantly reads, “A great victory.”
Joan is tied to the stake. A soldier makes a crude cross from two pieces of wood and gives it to her. She kisses it and holds it to her chest. As the flames are lit, the camera focuses intently on Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s face, capturing a transcendent expression of pain, fear, and lastly, peace. The smoke and flames eventually consume her. This brutal execution incites a riot among the townspeople who had sympathized with her. English soldiers violently suppress the uprising, and the film concludes with stark images of the chaos and the empty, smoking stake.
Are There Post-Credits Scenes?
No, there are no post-credits scenes in The Passion of Joan of Arc. The film ends definitively with the brutal aftermath of Joan’s execution. The practice of adding scenes after the credits was not common in the 1920s.
Type of Movie
The Passion of Joan of Arc is a historical drama and a silent film. More specifically, it functions as a psychological courtroom drama. The tone is intensely somber, claustrophobic, and emotionally raw. It deliberately avoids the epic scope of many historical films. Instead, it creates a deeply personal and spiritual experience through its minimalist and expressionistic style.
Cast
- Renée Jeanne Falconetti – Jeanne d’Arc
- Eugène Silvain – Évêque Pierre Cauchon
- André Berley – Jean d’Estivet
- Maurice Schutz – Nicolas Loyseleur
- Antonin Artaud – Jean Massieu
- Gilbert Dalleu – Jean Lemaitre
- Jean d’Yd – Nicolas de Houppeville
- Louis Ravet – Jean Beaupère
Film Music and Composer
As a silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc originally had a score for its Paris premiere composed by Léo Pouget and Victor Alix. However, that score was lost along with the original film print. For decades, the film was shown either in complete silence or with various other pieces of music.
In 1994, composer Richard Einhorn created a new oratorio titled Voices of Light specifically to accompany the film. This score, which uses texts from medieval female mystics and Joan of Arc herself, has become the most acclaimed and frequently used soundtrack for modern screenings. Consequently, many viewers now consider Voices of Light the definitive musical accompaniment to the film.
Filming Locations
The film was shot almost entirely on one of the most expensive and elaborate sets in cinema history. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer had a massive, interconnected set of the Rouen castle and marketplace constructed from concrete in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris. The design was historically accurate but built with skewed, modernist angles to create a sense of unease. Interestingly, despite the massive scope of the set, Dreyer’s relentless use of close-ups means very little of it is actually seen in its entirety in the final film.
Awards and Nominations
Upon its release, The Passion of Joan of Arc did not win major competitive awards in the way we understand them today. Its initial reception was complicated, with some critics hailing it as a masterpiece while others found it off-putting. However, it did win a “Best Foreign Film” award from the National Board of Review in the United States in 1929. Over time, its reputation has grown immensely, and it is now consistently ranked by critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest films ever made.
Behind the Scenes Insights
- Director Carl Theodor Dreyer was notoriously demanding. For instance, he forced actors to kneel on stone floors for hours to achieve genuine expressions of pain and exhaustion.
- Lead actress Renée Jeanne Falconetti gave what is considered one of the most intense performances in film history. The emotional and physical toll of the role was so severe that she never appeared in another feature film.
- Dreyer insisted that all actors perform without makeup, a radical choice at the time. He wanted the new panchromatic film stock to capture every pore, wrinkle, and tear with unflinching realism.
- The original nitrate master print of the film was destroyed in a fire at a Berlin studio in 1928. Dreyer painstakingly created a second version from alternate takes, but that too was lost in a lab fire in 1929.
- For over 50 years, the film was only available in poor-quality, re-edited versions. Then, in 1981, a near-perfect print of the original cut was miraculously discovered in a janitor’s closet at the Dikemark psychiatric hospital in Oslo, Norway.
Inspirations and References
The film’s primary and most crucial source of inspiration was the actual historical transcripts of the 1431 trial of Joan of Arc. Dreyer and his screenwriter, Joseph Delteil, condensed the 29 interrogations over 18 months into a single, harrowing narrative arc. The dialogue presented in the film’s intertitles is largely drawn directly from these historical documents, lending the proceedings an unnerving and powerful authenticity.
Alternate Endings and Deleted Scenes
The film does not have a conventional “alternate ending.” However, its history is defined by lost and restored versions. The original cut was famously destroyed in a fire shortly after its premiere. Dreyer assembled a new version from his second-choice takes, but that version was also lost. For decades, audiences saw heavily censored or re-edited versions assembled by others.
The miraculous 1981 discovery of a pristine print of the original Danish premiere version in a Norwegian asylum is the definitive version we see today. Therefore, this restoration is not an “alternate cut” but rather the recovery of the original intended film, which had been considered lost forever.
Book Adaptations and Differences
This film is not an adaptation of a novel. Instead, it is a direct cinematic interpretation of historical court records. The screenplay by Joseph Delteil and Carl Theodor Dreyer used the verbatim transcripts of Joan’s trial as its foundation. As a result, the film’s power comes from its faithfulness to the documented historical event rather than from adapting a fictionalized account.
Memorable Scenes and Quotes
Key Scenes
- The Bloodletting: While Joan lies sick in her cell, the judges bring in a doctor to bleed her, believing it will help her recover enough to stand trial. The scene is shot with brutal intimacy, focusing on Joan’s terrified face and the primitive medical practice, highlighting the physical torment that accompanies her spiritual one.
- The Final Walk and Execution: Joan’s procession to the stake is a masterpiece of editing. The camera cuts between her serene, tear-streaked face, the crying faces of sympathetic villagers, and the leering faces of English soldiers. The final moments at the stake, with flames consuming her as she looks to the heavens, are unforgettable.
Iconic Quotes
- Priest: “You said that you wore men’s clothes by God’s command. But we have proved that you said so without truth.”
- Pierre Cauchon: “Will you submit to the Church Militant?” Joan: “I will submit to the judgement of God.”
- Joan: “My visions were from God. I have not betrayed them.”
- Joan: “A great victory.” (title card)
Easter Eggs and Hidden Details
- Meticulous “Ugliness”: Dreyer intentionally cast actors for the tribunal who had interesting or “grotesque” faces. He further emphasized their warts, scars, and asymmetrical features by shooting them from unflattering low angles to contrast with Joan’s perceived purity.
- No Scenery: While the set was huge, Dreyer instructed his cinematographer, Rudolph Maté, to shoot almost the entire film against stark white walls. This choice removes all historical context, forcing the viewer to focus solely on the human drama unfolding in the characters’ faces.
- Antonin Artaud’s Cameo: The sympathetic priest Jean Massieu, who defends Joan at times, is played by Antonin Artaud. Artaud was a hugely influential surrealist poet, playwright, and founder of the “Theatre of Cruelty,” making his appearance a significant nod to the European avant-garde of the era.
Trivia
- The film’s single elaborate set cost 7 million francs, nearly half of the entire film’s budget.
- Renée Falconetti, who gave one of cinema’s most revered performances, was primarily a stage comedienne before being cast. This was her only significant film role.
- To achieve her tear-filled performance, Dreyer reportedly made Falconetti endure immense emotional hardship on set, though the extent of this is debated by historians. She did, in fact, allow her real hair to be cut on camera.
- The film is a co-production between French, Danish, and German talents, representing a notable pan-European artistic collaboration in the 1920s.
Why Watch?
Witness cinema at its most raw and powerful. The film’s revolutionary use of the close-up creates an intimate, unforgettable experience. It is pure visual storytelling, proving that silence can be more deafening than any sound. This is a trial you will never forget.
Director’s Other Movies
- Vampyr (1932)
- Day of Wrath (1943)
- Ordet (1955)
- Gertrud (1964)
Recommended Films for Fans
- The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962)
- Andrei Rublev (1966)
- The Passion of the Christ (2004)
- Ordet (1955)
- Ida (2013)
- The Seventh Seal (1957)
