A work of formalist beauty and emotional power, with a luminous central performance from Falconetti.
Comment
04/20/09
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
97
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:30
Fresh:29
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Dreyer's retelling of the trial and martyrdom of Joan of Arc remains one of the most immediate--and startlingly intimate--works of cinema ever produced. Based upon a meticulous study of the... [More]
Starring: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Sylvain, Maurice Schultz, Antonin Artaud
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Reviews for The Passion of Joan of Arc
Top CriticOne of the most inspired and inspiring films ever made.
12/30/06
Top CriticDreyer's most universally acclaimed masterpiece remains one of the most staggeringly intense films ever made.
06/24/06
Top CriticStunning in its power, uncompromising in its severity and seriousness, Carl Theodor Dreyer's silent masterpiece from 1928 all but scorches a hole in the screen.
08/05/03
Top CriticIt's a harrowing film, claustrophobic in its use of close-ups that unblinkingly record Joan's emotional and mental state. Each frame becomes a canvas for Dreyer's unflinching portrait of suffering.
06/24/03
Top CriticHere is a deadly tiresome picture that merely makes an attempt to narrate without sound or dialog an allegedly written recorded trial in the 15th or 16th century of Joan of Arc for witchery, leading to her condemnation and burning at the stake.
05/26/08
Top CriticDreyer's radical approach to constructing space and the slow intensity of his mobile style make this "difficult" in the sense that, like all the greatest films, it reinvents the world from the ground up.
02/09/07
No review available.
06/10/06
It is the gifted performance of Maria Falconetti as the Maid of Orleans that rises above everything in this artistic achievement.
03/25/06
Top CriticFew films have earned classic status more than Carl Dreyer's 1928 silent study of the 15th-Century teenager who helped lead French troops against the British only to be tried as a heretic.
03/24/06
Dreyer shows the power of close-ups to astonishing effect with Maria Falconetti's fantastic singular film acting performance.
10/10/05
Dreyer's film remains among the most strikingly unusual cinema you're ever likely to see.
07/13/05
No review available.
07/01/05
No review available.
06/13/05
Carl Dreyer's silent classic feaures a mesmerizing Maria Falconetti performance.
05/28/05
Blazing in its intensity, and overwhelming in its poetry.
07/04/04
No review available.
07/02/04
One of the great last gasps of the silent era, Dreyer’s classic presents, in a staggering series of close-ups, Joan’s trial before her inquisitors.
02/24/04
No review available.
01/16/04
In this film Joan again stands accused, and her long silences and simple answers continue to frustrate and confound.
11/03/03
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