The Trial of Joan of Arc

Not available on dvd, this had been kicking around my TiVo playlist since last October, so it seemed an opportune moment to watch another Bresson. And this time the subject is perfect for his severe and constraining style. Using the actual transcripts of Joan’s trial, Bresson has orchestrated an elliptical but profoundly real portrayal of an extraordinary historical event, more memorial pageant than you-are-there document. As the saying goes, “the past is another country,” and Bresson makes history suitably foreign. His refusal of sentiment or spectacle allows the confrontation between the massed power of church and state and the faith of the individual to achieve the starkest outline. And his Joan is an amazingly believable teenaged girl, demure but strong, dignified but fragile. This film makes a most instructive contrast to the silent Dreyer/Falconetti version, The Passion of Joan of Arc, and now that I am thinking about programming marathons at the Clark, wouldn’t it be interesting to show them together, throw in a bit of Ingrid Bergman and/or Jean Seberg, and then wind up with Sandrine Bonnaire in Rivette’s two-part Joan the Maid? (1962, TCM/T, r.) *8-*

In one of my all-time most bizarre double features ever, the same evening I also watched the dvd of Sideways, but my reaction was so much the same as the first time that I refer you to my original posting, which you can find by clicking on “Archives: January 2005” in the column to your right. I will say, this time around, it did strike me that Paul Giamatti was indeed cheated out of a Best Actor nomination, but with Bresson in mind it also struck how much the role was constructed out of performer’s tricks. Still, I’m all in favor of cinematic intoxication, and this film decants a fine blend of flavors, witty and tart, truthful and rueful.