Mark Kermode reviews The Passion of Joan of Arc | BFI Player

Championing Carl Theodor Dreyer's enduring masterpiece of silent cinema. Watch The Passion of Joan of Arc on BFI Player (UK only): theb.fi/2khe74I
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[@Offmedication]

"You have burned a SAINT!!" (Town goes crazy)

[@OUTBOUND184]

If it doesn't have the Voices of Light soundtrack you're simply missing out.... piano just doesn't cut it.

[@gormanlee935]

i can't find this movie with music anywhere. is this movie supposed to have music or not? i don't understand.

[@OUTBOUND184]

I think it was the first soundtrack composed for it after it was rediscovered. It's utterly glorious - full orchestra and choir, emotive, based on medieval themes. The Criterion Collection version is the one you want to watch.

[@omeshsingh8091]

No, the "director's cut" of the film was rediscovered in 1981. The Voices of Light was recorded much later in 1994. The director apparently wanted the film to be viewed without accompanying music, although over the years many people/groups have created musical and vocal accompaniments inspired by the film. Home releases offer various musical scores. The "Voices of Light" is a favorite which supercharges the emotion of performances, however watching the film in a proper 20fps rendering without music transforms the film, giving it a more documentary style. What I found interesting is that but due to the use of close up shots it still remains a very perspective driven film so you don't necessarily need the music to tell you what to feel, you can just simply "sit beside Joan" and know what she had to go through.

[@davidsanderson5918]

I watched it with no music at all. Music detracts from it.

[@DeanH92]

Voices of Light slays all.

[@pikebishop215]

One of the best films ever made.

[@warlockofwordschannel7901]

Just watched it yesterday, from the wondrous slipcased Eureka edition. Can see visual echoes of it later in Ken Russell's The Devils. Absolute cinematic goldmine.

[@anthonyburn1010]

Seeing this on the big screen at the AFI Silver in Silver Springs, Maryland, was a revelatory experience. I am not sure I even 'liked' the film, however it will always stay with me, especially that face.

[@Dancing-Spirits]

Thank you BFI and Mark Kermode, your weekly player plus has had a profound effect on me, it has even reached the point where these brevis introductions have produced nostalgia for myself.

[@royjackson9576]

This is a fantastic film!!

[@jerrygil1965]

One of the best films of the roaring 20s

[@yazanasad7811]

Suppressed suffering

[@davidsanderson5918]

Kermode's deliberate emphasis upon the 'kneeling on concrete' rumour unfortunately overshadows the rest of his appetiser. He always loves the gossip behind a film doesn't he? I can accept his salivation over juicy rumours with other films but with this one it borders on ignorance. Dreyer and Falconetti would be so angry. Especially because it's untrue anyway.

[@DineshBhadwal]

Is it acting if you have to physically injure yourself to express pain associated with that injury? What is the audience reacting to in this case? The emotion on screen or the story behind that act that she had to 'kneel for hours on a cold concrete floor'? May be Dreyer wanted Falconetti to undergo physical and mental trauma as a price to get this coveted role but then how ethical is it? These questions are important as in recent years many actresses have come forth with allegations against many so called important male directors who made them suffer for the sake of authenticity.

[@Eleanor_Freya]

I would challenge that. All pain is the essence of any art. If there is enough inside to make a performance like this and you need just a little trigger to push it to the limit - then why not? And placing it in a trivia of male vs. female dynamic - so boring! I would imagine he didn't chain her and made her play in this movie.

[@DineshBhadwal]

@@Eleanor_Freya Acting for cinema is different than theatre.

[@jordanthomas4379]

This appears to be one of those movies you like because pretentious film critics tell you to.

[@tjenadonn6158]

I like it because it's genuinely one of the greatest performances ever put to film; easily the single greatest display of acting skill of the 1920s that we have record of. While Metropolis may always hold my top position when it comes to films from that decade (you never forget your first love) Falconetti as an actress displays a mastery of acting for the camera, which any actor will tell you requires a very different set of techniques than acting for the stage, which is simply decades ahead of her time.

[@gjford1951]

The music for this movie may have been intended to distract from the movie, i. e., the music may have been part of the censorship that the film was subject to upon its completion. www.nga.gov/film-programs/off-screen-further-readings/restoring-original-orchestrations-for-silent-film.html