The Passion of Joan of Arc
1928|Carl Theodor Dreyer
Renée Falconetti’s tear-streaked face held in intimate close-up. This image has become a cinematic icon worthy of the sainted Jeanne d’Arc herself. It is not, however, Jeanne’s sainthood that director Carl Theodor Dreyer is probing. Here she is separated from legend, neither God’s messenger nor a warrior, but a complicated woman of flesh and blood. All of her devotion, devastation, her stubbornness before her crafty judges, and her acceptance of her imminent death emanate from Falconetti’s expressive face, which is laid bare in a seemingly endless series of close-ups through which Dreyer brings us agonizingly close to Jeanne’s physical and emotional being.
