Jeanne d'Arc

This is an elaborate production for its time, with 11 tableaux, 250 meters and a runtime of 10 minutes. Additionally, the print available on the Flicker Alley set is wonderfully hand-colored. There's also a nice vision scene-within-a-scene, which is a rather common, but appreciated, occurrence in early films. On the other hand, this early story film especially seems to be bogged down by Méliès's typical theatrical style, perhaps because it's a historical reenactment film rather than some amusing fantasy or fairytale. I don't find it as entertaining as his later films such as "Bluebeard" (1901), "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) and "The Kingdom of the Fairies" (1903), which more greatly overcome their stagy and primitive qualities. For instance, the revolving parade scene and the lame battle are goofed even for 1900. In addition, Méliès plays too many different roles in this one, which could have been confusing without the lecture provided.

Nevertheless, it would take a couple years before other film pioneers, including Edwin S. Porter, Robert W. Paul and Ferdinand Zecca, to name a few, began to make narrative films to compare to this one. "Joan of Arc" came on the heels of Méliès's earlier and first super-production "Cinderella" (1899), which, like this film, connected its tableaux by dissolves. "Joan of Arc" is somewhat more polished than "Cinderella" was, as, likewise, Méliès's later féeries (fairy films) are more refined and sophisticated than this film.

Also of note, Joan of Arc has always been a popular screen subject. The first filmed version I know of was by the Edison Company in 1895. The Lumiére Company made a shot-scene reenactment of the trial, titled "Execution of Joan of Arc" (Exécution de Jeanne d'Arc), just a year before Méliès's film. The Lumiére film, which has been available on home video, isn't worthwhile except for perhaps that it, too, survives in a hand-colored print. When I saw it, and when considering its title and that they only had a single shot-scene, I wondered why they wouldn't use the hand coloring to exploit the attraction of a burning at the stake. Méliès didn't miss opportunities like that.

This was pretty good. The coloring was nice, the sets were awesome and the battle and execution scenes were cool, too. It does get a little boring at the beginning, but overall, its pretty sweet.

Joan Of Arc (1900)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Jeanne d'Arc

Breathtaking version of the classic story tells the life and death of the one and only Joan of Arc. This film is unique for many different reasons including the fact that it runs ten minutes long, which certainly wasn't common for the day. Another unique factor is that the entire film was hand colored and this is where the true beauty of the movie comes into play. The colors of the film are downright brilliantly done and makes other color films from this period look quite poor. The red colors of the dresses and the bright lime colors are beautiful to look at. The story is also told through narration and this is another plus as it's able to tell us a lot about what we're watching and it also points out the various roles being played by Melies. This film holds up incredibly well today and is one that would probably be enjoyed by plenty of kids who wouldn't normally watch a film from 1900.

This is a classic tale of a true figure in French history, who paid a price for her beliefs. She is heroic as she fends off those that would have her take the easy way out. This film is hand painted and has brilliant color throughout. Also, the images are sophisticated. I have always thought that this story ranks with the best. Was Joan a hero or was she mad? Any way you look at it, she had the entire courage of her convictions.

In the history of films, there's a lot of debate about which film was the first full-length movie. During the 1890s and into the 1900s, films were generally one to three minutes in length. Sometime in the early 20th century, the first full-length movie was made...but which one was the first? And, most importantly, what constitutes full-length? I've seen some say that Georges Méliès' "The Trip to the Moon" was the first while others say "The Great Train Robbery". Well, the answer's not that easy. Both these films were less than 20 minutes in length (which is still pretty short) and Georges Méliès' "Joan of Arc" was eat least as long as his "The Trip to the Moon" which he made two years LATER. As for me, I have no idea...but I do know that soon after these three films, Italian filmmakers were making films of over an hour in length.

This story of the life of Joan of Arc is missing a few portions but as is, it clocks in at about 10-11 minutes. I say 'about' because film length is hard to determine for silents as the cranking speed of the cameraman determined how long the film lasted...there was no standard like today's 24 frames per second. But what remains is very nice--with lots of sets, lots of great costumes and many sequences which are hand-colored. It really is an amazing film for 1900...far ahead of its time....and telling a complex story, unlike 99% of the other films from 1900. Sure, it's all a bit stagy and sets are much like those you'd see in a play...but still, for 1900 it was something! In fact, when you see it today, it still impresses.