I haven't seen the DVD version. This commentary is based on the horrible VHS print I viewed and promptly tossed out. I now know that 45 minutes of the original film was missing and replaced by commentary that in no way made the story coherent.

But the shortened version contained dialog that sounded so theatrical and was delivered in non-credible fashion by a cast of professionals under Victor Fleming's uninspired direction.

This is clearly not one of Bergman's best performances. She is radiant in many of the close-ups although a little too old to be believable as the young Joan. The film betrays its stage origins and is much too talky for extended sequences. The only time the film embraces some action is during a poorly staged battle sequence.

Summing up: I suppose it's unfair to judge the film based on the print I saw--but even allowing for the bad editing, it is apparent that this was not a successful transition to the screen of what apparently was a marvelous stage role for Ingrid. Jose Ferrer gives the most interesting performance as the Dauphin but others are simply part of the scenery.

Costumes are beautiful and some of the sets look impressive but overall it has no cinema magic and leaves the viewer with a flat viewing experience. I'll have to watch the DVD version if I'm to change my opinion since the cinematography surely must look better on DVD.

P.S. - Have just read Michael Sragow's new book on Victor Fleming and even the great director himself said, "It's a disaster, that picture."

P.P.S. - TCM has just shown the fully restored version of JOAN OF ARC and it's a much better film than it appears to be in the edited print which I first saw on VHS. Furthermore, the sets are magnificent, the color restoration is excellent, and all technical issues are much better represented. But the script is too talky and leaves the film stage bound at points. Bergman looks incredibly radiant in all of her close-ups but it seems like a surface performance and one that is not that deeply felt.

In the Fifteenth Century, France is a defeated and ruined nation after the One Hundred Years War against England. The fourteen years old farm girl Joan of Arc (Ingrid Bergman) claims to hear voices from Heaven asking her to lead God's Army against Orleans and crowning the weak Dauphin Charles VII (José Ferrer) as King of France. Joan gathers the people with her faith, forms an army and conquerors Orleans. When her army is ready to attack Paris, the corrupt Charles sells his country to England and dismiss the army. Joan is arrested, sold to the Burgundians England and submitted to a shameful political trial in Rouen castle, when in 1931 she is sentenced to burn at stake.

The story of Joan D'Arc is one of the most beautiful I have seen in the cinema, and Victor Fleming's version is no exception. I have seen Carl Dryer's and Robert Bresson's (the best),Luc Besson's (the weakest – actually a means to promote his girlfriend Mila Jovovich),Christian Duguay's (a great television version with Leelee Sobieski in the lead role) and all of them a good movies because the story of this martyr and saint "Maid of Lorraine" is actually awesome and doomed to please the audiences. Her history shows faith, betrayal and corruption in a period of treachery and domination of the powerful Catholic Church in Europe. Ingrid Bergman is miscast in the role of a fourteen to nineteen years old girl that can be confused with a man, but she has a great and shining performance and deserved her nomination to the Oscar. The debut of José Ferrer could not be better, performing a shallow and corrupt king. The Oscar winning cinematography is very beautiful for a 1948 movie. The DVD released in Brazil is completely restored but unfortunately there is a bug in chapter 6, stopping the movie. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Joana D'Arc" ("Joan of Arc")

Victor Fleming's Academy Award-winning epic about the French warrior/saint casts Ingrid Bergman in the lead role. It would've been interesting to see a full adaptation of the play on which "Joan of Arc" is based, incorporating the theater troupe putting on a production of Joan's life. This movie does feel like a play, emphasizing the dialogue. I found it to be worth seeing, just the opposite of Luc Besson's clumsy 1999 movie about Joan (seriously, that movie came across as a spoof of historical epics).

In the end, it's not a great movie, but a fine look at Joan's life.