Joan the Woman

This is a curio - the story of Joan of Arc leading on from a view of the English trenches in World War One (which was still of course, a reality when this film was made). Geraldine Farrar might not look the part of Joan but she manages to convey all the power, spirituality and vulnerability the part demands. her acting is a little theatrical as you would expect from an opera diva but she is excellent nontheless. Wallace Reid (a tragic casualty of Hollywood not that long after this) is pretty good as well, although I thought the love story angle stretched credibility a bit in places. The film itself meanders a bit but when you consider it is over eighty years old it still retains a remarkable amount of effect. Not as good as the 1928 Dreyer film but one to seek out.

The problem with Joan of Arc is that she was only seventeen when her story began.Geraldine Farrar was 25 and she was obviously too old for the part.Most of the versions to come had the same problem:to name but three,Ingrid Bergman in Fleming's epic,or MIchèle MOrgan in Joan's native country or even Falconetti in Dreyer's masterpiece were not physically the maid of Orleans .Otto Preminger was right when he cast a nineteen years old Jean Seberg.

This is minor quibble .De Mille' s movie is a good,nay excellent epic. It was a propaganda movie,cause it featured a "modern" prologue and an epilogue which took place in the tranches during WW1.DeMille would continue in that vein in his "ten commandment" (1923) where a long biblical part was followed by a "realistic" contemporary tale.But propaganda movie does not mean bad movie!Cecil Blunt de Mille was a storyteller extraordinaire,only equaled in the silent era by David Wark Griffith.

Joan's adventures are half history (The meeting with the queen in Chinon,my own native town ,the trial ,Jean de Luxembourg selling Joan)half fictionalized history: Eric de Trent appears at the beginning of Joan's epic ,in Domremy,we find him back in Orleans,Compiègne,Rouen,all along the way,which has nothing to do with French history.Ditto for the king's failed abdication just when Joan is in the castle ,or worse the poisoned wine (by Bishop Pierre Cauchon,no less.Eric de TRent looks like an alter ego of Gilles de Retz (or Rais) -not present in the movie- who reportedly was in love with Joan and who ,becoming mad after her death ,buggered and killed lots of children (the legend made him Blue Beard).

This is a very well told story;La Tremouille's despicable role -he is referred to as "the spider" ,I have not noticed his name in the lines- is not passed over in silence;the battles in Orleans are better than ,say,the Lara Croftesque ones depicted by Luc Besson's recent "the messenger" ;the martyrdom in Rouen where De Mille makes an unusually inventive use of color for the fire.All the lines are in Middle -Ages English :funny how ,since William the Conqueror,many French and English words look like each other (coward=couard ,old French for "lâche" ).Sentences from the trial are often authentic.

French's honor!This "Joan of Arc" is one of the best!

Like this? Try these:

"La Merveilleuse HIstoire de Jeanne D'Arc" Marc(o) De Gastyne,1928 "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc " Carl Dreyer 1928 "Joan of Arc " Victor Fleming 1948 "Destinées" Jean Delannoy 1953 (one sketch) "Giovanna d'Arco al rogo" Roberto Rosselini,1954 "Saint Joan" Otto Preminger 1957 "Procès de Jeanne D'Arc" Robert Bresson 1962

Joan The Woman was Cecil B DeMille's first epic, the genre that today he is best remembered for, although at this point it was more the case that was hopping on a band wagon. After the massive success of Italian "super production" Cabiria, DW Griffith had made Intolerance and Thomas Ince (forgotten today but a big name at the time) did a World War epic called Civilization. In 1916, all the big names were doing epics, and DeMille, now established as Paramount's star filmmaker, wasn't going to be the one to miss out.

Joan The Woman was something like De Mille's fourth or fifth collaboration with Jeanie Macpherson. Typically of Macpherson it has a tight storyline somewhat marred by some rather odd ideas. The framing story, set in war-torn Europe, is apparently there to give the tale some contemporary relevance, and it may be in part an Intolerance-inspired blending of narratives in different historic periods. However on MacPherson's part it seems to be a chance to explore her interest in reincarnation. So we get this daft little story about a British soldier who was in a past life the man who betrayed Joan, and now has to go and sacrifice himself in battle to repay the debt. An officer holds up a bomb as if it were the catch of the day – "I need one of you chaps to go and drop this in the German trench. Oh and by the way it's a suicide mission, so think carefully before you volunteer" The whole thing looks like something out of Blackadder Goes Forth.

This is DeMille though, and it's not about the daft plot – it's about the big picture. De Mille's deftness at handling crowd scenes had been apparent since his earliest films, but here he really gets to use that skill to its full potential. The main battle sequence is as spectacular as those in Intolerance, but it is also convincing. DeMille apparently set the two opposing armies of extras genuine objectives – hence we get a very real sense of desperation and determination. He makes good use of high angles looking down on the action – God's-eye-views, perhaps. DeMille also builds up tension to the clash of armies with a mighty cavalry charge across the screen, and in this we see the seeds of the equivalent sequences in DeMille's The Crusades (1935) Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky and Olivier's Henry V, all of which used and developed the opening cavalry charge to add excitement to battle scenes.

DeMille continues to progress well with his mastery of visual grammar. As per usual in his silent pictures, he makes some use of "Rembrandt lighting" – well lit actors against dark backgrounds. Here however he achieves a similar effect, albeit it with light and dark reversed, with clouds of dust or smoke framing the characters as silhouettes. Also much in evidence here is DeMille's use of images to imply sound – for example a shot of church bells ringing, followed by a shot of Joan reacting to the sound conveys narrative (and in this case character information) without resorting to intertitles. DeMille knows that he doesn't necessarily have to throw in a title every time a character opens their mouth, and as often as possible keeps a smooth flow of meaningful images. The romantic scenes between Geraldine Farrar and Wallace Reid are particularly effective as a result. Having said that, there is perhaps a bit too much pompous theatrical gesturing from the actors, which I suppose goes hand-in-hand with the rather unnecessary use of "thees" and "thous" in the titles.

It's perhaps rather appropriate that, as well as being the first time DeMille brought epic spectacle to the fore, this is also his first story to contain a heavy dose of religious piety. For DeMille, as we can see here, God is a showman, a god of miracles, visions and righteous destruction. The incredibly egomaniacal DeMille probably saw himself as a similar figure, dazzling the populace and hammering home his messages with spectacle and special effects. So, with Joan The Woman, we see the beginnings of the DeMille who would one day part the red sea and resurrect Jesus on the silver screen.

Interesting spectacle with opera star Geraldine Farrar as Joan of Arc. The costumes and sets are impressive, and the battle of Orleans is well staged. Wallace Reid appears in a dual role; first, as an English soldier in the trenches of World War I who has a vision of Joan, and then as an English soldier during the time of Joan of Arc who is saved by her, but ultimately is ordered to capture her. Raymond Hatton, as the spineless Charles VII, is quite good, as are most of the supporting actors. The burning-at-the-stake scene is harrowing and realistic. The copy I saw on YouTube appeared to be a 1997 restoration, complete with a pipe organ score.

All the Demille trademarks are here - huge crowd scenes, wild orgies, torture - but there is also a beauty and imagination here that is lacking in some of his later work. The use of double exposures for Joan's visions, the magnificent use of lighting and colour tinting, reveal a film-maker of greater depth than we might expect.

Opera diva Geraldine Farrar seems a little old and hefty for Joan of Arc, but once you get past that she truly gives an excellent performance. And Wallace Reid as her English lover lends strong support.

The camera is a little static and the "spectacular" battle scene is really just hundreds of people running around waving sticks in the air and falling backwards off walls (and I think very little attention was paid to the safety of the extras and the horses), but this is still a very rewarding and innovative film. And we get the original 1916 score performed on a Wurlitzer.

The historical story is framed by a World War 1 (then currently raging in Europe) scene, which adds poignancy to the piece, but does make the central thesis of the story (that God takes sides in wars) a little harder to take. Ramon Novarro's in this somewhere - can you find him?