This incredibly, well-paced french film with an ego-less perspective set during the middle ages perfectly captures the story of Joan of Arc. It felt holy, symbolic and absolutely beautiful.

If you're not a fan, at least you've experienced a contrasting perspective to your every day experience!

Wholesome and intelligent.

This is a story of a young girl Joan of Arc, who believes herself as a messenger of God and leads the army of France. When she is captured by the English army, she is sent to the trail by the Church. There she refuses to accept the accusations made by the Church and she stays true to the mission of Victory over the English. If we see the plot we expect many war sequences and many great historic moments as the story is set up in that period. It has also got a greater scope to the intense drama for the trail and when Jeanne is taking decisions for the country. But all we see are some boring dialogue scenes and uninteresting parade scenes. The planning of the battle is done on some random deserted lands, where we see some old people wearing some dunes and some metallic armors to make themselves look like the advisors and warriors. This type of setting is seen almost everytime they plan for the war. When Joan is left alone to take a decision on the war and she listens to the voices in her head claiming them as the God's voice. But it was her own decision which makes things move on. There is an immense scope for the development of the emotions in this scene and drama where her internal turmoil can be potrayed beautifully. But here we get is her solid rock face and some uninteresting song in the background. This song almost plays for 4 minutes and this definitely makes you get bored. Even after they decide to attack on the English army, they start with a parade. This makes us to expect something epic. But the horses keep on moving in the direction of '8' finally this parade runs for almost 4 minutes. This tests our patience. All the wars which happened in the history are just explained in the text form and this killed the excitement. Even when the trail starts we expect some things to happen. But the comic way of it's narration ruined the drama. The artists are another set back for the film especially the protagonist Prudhomme. Her face lacked the ferociousness which is needed by this character. No need to even think about the rest of the cast. What is really good about the entire film is the costumes and the Church for the trail sequence. Cinematography is top notch. Except for these two aspects it is a dull film and sloppy attempt. Bottom line: Joan of Arc is not quite funny enough to be funny, or serious enough to be serious, or passionate enough to be about the passion of Joan of Arc.

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 .