Jeanne d'Arc

And so I did. Why? The first 30 minutes annoyed me heavily. Tedious, amateuristic acting and scenes. Everything went on too long. Not a moment I saw something interesting or glorious or intriguing. I kept on thinking: this is amateur stuff. Sorry. Could not be lured to continue watching.

The first half is a bit ridiculous because the film obviously doesn't have a budget. The trial part is more interesting and makes me want to see other films on the subject.

First thing to bear in mind is that it's the second part of a diptych dealing with the French heroine; the first one,released the precedent year,called 'Jeannette ,l'enfance de Jeanne" , partly a musical, told the early years in Domremy ,the heavenly voices and the beginning of the legend .

The most famous story of our history,told,and told and told and TOLD.And filmed and filmed and filmed and FILMED :from Dreyer to Besson ,via De Mille , Preminger,Fleming,Bresson,and so many others it's impossible to count them all .

In "destinées" (1953),Jean Delannoy ,a director hated by the NV ,had sketched a new approach : it was only a sketch (about 40 min) but for the first time,it did not show Jeanne's epic but her moments of doubt and fear ,after the king was about to negociate and did not want to carry on with the fight.

"Jeanne" begins just before the siege of Paris ,the first of the heroine's failures .From the very beginning,one knows what to expect : not the usual scenes ,nothing spectacular ;if you're looking for this ,you'd better move on.

So much for the prelims : "this will be a defining moment" they all say ,before coming to the Parisians' rescue : her brothers in arms ,the duke of Alençon and Gilles De Rais (he's told :"you are not a sorcerer yet" ,an ominous line ");then heavenly voices which seem to sum up the epic for Joan is tired of the war and admits that she longs for the gentle way of life when she was spinning the wool .Then a very long scene which depicts movements in the horsemen which eventually produces a hypnotic effect .

Probably influenced by Bernard Shaw and Jean Anouilh,Dumont puts the stress on the supporting characters :hence the long discussion between the judges before the trial ,priding themselves on their degrees and on their high competence ; the trial takes place ,oddly ,in the cathedral of Rouen , which makes Joan all the more small and frail since the actress looks hardly like a teenager .This may be the only moment the viewer finds something to cling to ,for some of the lines are historically true (notably Jeanne's state of grace).Then again a threnody is heard ,sung by singer Christophe who wrote the music and appears here as preacher Guillaume Evrard -sadly Christophe was to pass away recently ,a victim of the covid 19.

The artistic choice is brought to the fore one more time in the final scenes : the torturers talk about their instruments ,and there's a pathetic quarrel about the prisoner's chain ;likewise , the guards of the dungeon show no compassion ,no desire (she's a witch and people were superstitious),and are more interested in the bottles of wine one of their mates bring:their derisory words are not unlike these of the warden in Jean Anouilh 's " Antigone" : it's not their business.

Defying historical realism , Jeanne 's jail looks like a WW2 bunker ; the audience is even refused the stake (Anouilh's "influence again :in "l'alouette" ,he had the stake destroyed) : only a small smoke ascends towards the absolute . It's not a very accessible film :but it possesses a mesmerizing fascinating power .

I liked the fact that this adaptation wasn't your typical overblown rubbish with gratuitous sex scenes that are churned out of Hollywood. Other than the one overacting blusterous priest that wouldn't shut up. I found this play like structure rather enjoyable.

I see that there are reviewers who were expecting a George Lucas Star Wars type of production full of glamorous but wooden actors. I feel that this young actress did a fantastic portrayal of Joan of Arc and the absent of sex in this film tends to place more focus on the actual story being told.

There are plenty of ways in which a director and script writers can go when putting together a historical production such as this. I for one prefer art over sex appeal, and talent over exposed flesh.

Mediocre is a word that sums up this film well. Finally to summarize, is there really something going on in this movie??? Battle scenes are some ride arena and boring shootings. After the amazement to see Jeanne of Arc played by a cute 10-year-old girl, you would think why not, she can be a real virgin! However, the result is very disappointing. If the director displays his will to shoot a film without "professional" actors, the acting of the protagonists is really bad. The Marshal of France is a pre-pubescent teenager with his first beard, with a castrated voice to make the best gay bars totally hysterical. The protagonists come and go as in a theatre play, the new characters being "announced" by those already present. Let's forget the locations Cathedral of Rouen is now the one of Amiens, the Parisian countryside is now dunes of sands of the north of France, and medieval castles are now WWII! German Bunker or stone on the ground... Let's forget the music, it has been written by the successful seventies French singer Christophe who also get lost in translation, the producers probably asked him to write something about the voices in the head of Joan, and it ended in some long 5 minutes scenes of the young actress almost getting paralyzed listening to the singer rhythms and songs. With so many nominations and a win, we can think the result would be amazing, this is just a disastrous movie because this is pure sick intellectual and they have found 1.5 M euros to finance it. Les Cahiers du Cinema wrote that this is one of the Top5 French films, it is probable, given the box office, one of the Top5 most boring and crappy film made about Joan of Arc!!!