Passionate for Joan of Arc

    There was a 19 year old French heroine in 1430 who lead French armies to victory against the English in the service of God and her King, Charles VII. She was captured, interrogated, and martyred by the Churchmen whose God she was obeying. The subject has been treated before from many different perspectives, as remarked by Tony Pipolo, “She was treated, not always sympathetically, through the Centuries by no lesser figures than Shakespeare, Schiller, Voltaire, Verdi, and Twain; and in the Twentieth century by Shaw, Brecht, Anouilh, Bernanos, Peguy, and Honegger.” In 1920, the Catholic Church canonized her a saint. In 1927, Carl Theodore Dreyer, a Danish poet, directed a silent film simply called “The Passion Joan of Arc”. The Passion of Joan of Arc, directed by Carl Theodore Dreyer, is a movie full of contrasting themes with huge internal struggles where truth struggles to be heard and triumphs despite the films unreal feeling and its harsh ending. These characteristics are best explained in retrospect to the plot, characters, techniques, and theme. 

    
    However, the Second World War with all its destruction swept both the memory of the movie and most copies of it into oblivion. It seemed to be that the last copy of the Directors final cut was destroyed accidentally by being burned up in a nitrate fire. Fortunately, it was not the end of the film. As James Giles put it, a complete reel of the picture was “miraculously” discovered in a janitor’s closet in a mental institution in 1981. This reel was announced years later to be the only original version of what has now been acknowledged by the British Film Institute as one of the greatest films ever made.
 

    The plot is an adelphiaso plot, which a heroine is made a victim by fate or victimized by her nemeses. The story is like a Greek drama in that it is a third-person view of one particular person who struggled with authorities, yet it lacks a diverse collection of key characters. A Young women is nearly tortured by devious and determined men of the cloth. They were determined to have her admit that her whole campaign under the guidance of God was a lie or she would face a horrible death. They were terrifying and tricky. She makes the case for her innocence with a grace filled state of mind and with great power. The film is 81 minutes long. The story itself represents a serious classical challenge but Dreyer seemed to not have been intimidated. Potter Nichole accurately describes this in the Passion of Joan of Arc, Voice of Light “Discarding much of the material supplied by writer Joseph Delteil, Dreyer created his Screenplay from transcripts of Joan’s 1431 trail. The film takes Joan’s last seven months from her imprisonment to her immolation at the hands of the Inquisition—and compresses the events into 24 hours.” This caused several historical inaccuracies, but the piece is primarily an artistic message. We have a “debate” between inquisitors and a single saint. Tragedies are potent. However unpopular, the fact that a tragedy was used in this piece doesn’t do justice to this story, not because it is sad, but because it leaves one so unsatisfied that I cannot tell for sure if the movie was nihilistic.  

 
    The characters are depicted fairy tale like. The main villains are in charge of the court, they are obviously repulsive as they persecute the pure victim Joan of Arc. The leader of the inquisition had several large warts on his face. It is common tradition in fairy tales to depict physical imperfection as a sign of inner evil. The English clergyman had his hair done in a way that looked like devil horns. A third French bishop served as a Judas, one who once worked for King Charles VII, had the most weathered face which was used in contrast later. The oldest clergymen who were opposed to the trial had a strangely mute look. The younger clergy were villains with complicated motives because they advocated her recanting her story for the sake of her own survival. The troops are large Englishmen in uniforms who wore the helmets that the English used in World War I. The soldiers were somehow reminiscent of the Roman soldiers who crucified Christ. Joan of Arc was not just a young heroine. She was a Christ figure who suffered horrible agony, was slandered, humiliated, endured bravely and finally, gave up her life in obedience to God, like the Christ crucified. Though through it all you can see her able to return to her secret, internal ability to immerse herself in faith, love, and hope.
 

    The technique and the writing in the film were alien to me. Watching a silent film was captivating from a readers’ point of view. Modern viewers will find themselves studying the slightest facial adjustment and using social skills to interpret what happens. It is stimulating to follow along with silent acting where the dialogue has no volume, tone, accent, or emphasis. When re-watching it, the experience was similar to deep meditation, for I was basking in silence, yet still incredibly captivated. Disgust for the villain grows deeper in several places but especially when these clergymen cut her artery to remove “bad blood” and then the clergy are talking and then back to the fountain of blood and the blade; the alternating between these two scene makes you associate the discomfort of bleeding and blood with the clergy men inflicting this on Joan. Though Dreyer didn’t call them clergy men, but rather “judges” (3:29), and another description was “a cohort of blind theologian and corrupt lawyers” (3:53).
 

    The theme of her being the Christ figure and how the virtues of true innocence and loyalty to her conscience run strongly through the film. In contrast, the main villain repeatedly has fits of theatrical rage. Always present is the sense that here are many attacking one. We have a women ridiculed for wearing men’s clothing by undeserving men of the cloth. A Young nobody who becomes a true hero. Joan of Arc, her stature and nobility already monumental, is attacked by old men, lesser known but powerful, an evil group. The illiterate and innocent girl endured questions from these crafty and learned cowards. One who is united to God and a witness for Him is prohibited from the sacrifice of the mass. It is held out as a bargaining chip by a group defined by their self-interest. Joan of Arc was loyal to the churches teaching and fervently asked for the mass, the true church is never her enemy. The film was, in many ways, black and white. The audience needed not to waste their time picking sides. Instead, showing how the frailty of Joan of arc was impenetrable to the most educated elitist and their slyest tricks. She was in a state of grace and acted with mental clarity from the strength that came from her simple but clean conscience. One way of proving this is by examining the torture scene where she exclaims that anything she says would be forced from her and then fainting. This is the same warrior who fearlessly stormed through stronghold after stronghold with daring feats of courage. However, in the beginning of the film, the shackled 19 year old girl gives terrifying threats to the armed English officers.
 

    Carl Theodore Dreyer had a huge impact on the audience in personal ways. The cruelest reptile can feel compassion for the saint as the viewer stares into a close up of pure little girls’ face who feels authentic pain from being prohibited something that she must do for their own sake. The movie almost seems as if it is purely built around this feeling for deep compassion. A holy Helen-of-Troy who is actually worth fighting for is innocently attacked in body, mind, and soul. Though having her be the victim extenuates her Christ figure architype and draws attention to her among the scholars, much like a white figure in a dark medium, the story has no redemption. Modern plots often have redemption without suffering, such as the recent animation classic WAL E. Though Joan, at the end of the film, burns and crumbles like a flower burns, and the people rise up in rebellion, they are quickly slaughtered for doing so and in reality these Parisians don’t rebel against the English for another 25 years. Even those who wrote the story of Joan of Ark with little sympathy write it as a Christ story of redemption. In this film, no characters improved despite her self-sacrifice that put so many people on their feet again with hope and reason. Joan is so ineffable a Saint that many authors have failed in the impossible attempt to describe her. This movie has a character that is difficult to imagine on the battle field regardless of what history tells us.
 

    Though with many inaccuracies, all previous authors paled in comparison to what Dreyer has captured in Joan of Arcs small but intensely powerful way. Joan is truly humble and delicate in such a way that crafty old men, her greatest foes even while she was working for the King, could not defeat her. This women is larger than life in her tiny way, and yet no Director has successfully depicted her on the big screen. Though viewers will be deeply moved at the beginning, they will leave dissatisfied at the martyrdom. Joan of Arc, if you believe the church, is enthroned in glory in Heaven as a great saint. On the screen, the Maid of Orleans will never have justice served. Just beware of the end.

Work Cited
Pipolo, Tony. "Joan of Arc The Cinema's Immortal Maid." North Lake College Library.    Cineaste, Web.
Nichole, potter. “Passion of Joan of Arc/Voice of Light.” North Lake College Library, Motion    Picture and Video Production. Web.
Giles, Jane. The Passion of Joan of Arc, the (Film). Thesis. Northlake, 2012. North Lake College    Library. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.
Iconaus. “Carl Theodor Dreyer: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).” YouTube, YouTube, 26    June 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3q6fvhqly0.
Pfeiffer, lee. “La Passion De Jeanne d'Arc.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Encyclopedia    Britannica, 30 Mar. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/topic/la-passion-de-jeanne-darc.
Malcolm, Yvonne Lanhers. “Saint Joan of Arc.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Encyclopedia    Britannica, 1 Feb. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/biography/saint-joan-of-arc.
Christie, Ian. “The 50 Greatest Films of All Time | Sight &Amp; Sound.” British Film Institute,    British    Film Institute, Sept. 2012, http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time.
Polti, Georg. “Adelphiasoplot.” Falling Prey to Cruelty or Misfortune: Georg Polti Plots or    Storylines, http://www.askwhy.co.uk/adelphiasoplot/062.php.