Joan of Arc

1948

Action / Biography / Drama / History / War

16
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 82% · 11 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 53% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 4060 4.1K

france trial religion joan of arc jeanne d'arc

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Plot summary

In the 15th Century, France is a defeated and ruined nation after the One Hundred Years War against England. The fourteen-year-old farm girl Joan of Arc claims to hear voices from Heaven asking her to lead God's Army against Orleans and crowning the weak Dauphin Charles VII as King of France. Joan gathers the people with her faith, forms an army, and conquers Orleans.

Director

Victor Fleming Photo
Victor Fleming

Top cast

Henry Brandon Photo
Henry Brandon as Capt. Giles de Rais
Thomas Browne Henry Photo
Thomas Browne Henry as Raoul de Gaucort
Lester Dorr Photo
Lester Dorr as Peasant
Richard Ney Photo
Richard Ney as Charles de Bourbon, Duke de Clermont
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1 GB
934*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 25 min
Seeds 3
2.17 GB
1392*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 25 min
Seeds 9

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by brogmiller 7 / 10

"My victory is my martyrdom."

'Joan of Lorraine' had enjoyed great success on Broadway and was a triumph for both playwright Maxwell Anderson and star Ingrid Bergman. It was only natural that Miss Bergman should relish the chance of transferring her performance to the silver screen but the commercial requirements of Hollywood required Anderson and his collaborator Simon Holt to depart from the the play's original pared down 'then-and-now' concept and to present a straightforward treatment in the form of a lush, big-budget mini epic.Our perception of certain films is often coloured by the reputation that precedes them and this one is no exception. Although disdained by critics and failing at the box office Victor Fleming's film is not nearly as bad as some would have us believe.It boasts ravishing Technicolour cinematography by Joseph Valentine, fabulous art direction by Richard Day and a magnificent score by Hugo Friedhofer. As one would expect, the script is literate but one suspects too much so for the average film goer. Although it espouses the glory of France and the perfidy of Albion there is not a single French accent to be heard although the performances by British/American actors are uniformly excellent notably José Ferrer making his screen debut, Francis L. Sullivan, Cecil Kellaway, John Emery, Ward Bond and J. Carroll Naish. Unsurprisingly the film fared pretty well in France where it no doubt symbolised recent liberation from Nazi occupation.Many have commented on Miss Bergman at thirty-three being too old for the part. Whereas it is true that Simone Genevois, Angela Salloker, Jean Seberg and Florence Delay were nearer Joan's actual age, Sandrine Bonnaire played the role at twenty-seven whilst Renée Falconetti whose portrayal is the template by which all others are judged, was a mere thirty-six! For this viewer at any rate Miss Bergman gets away with it here and her performance both touches the heart and engages our emotions which is all that really matters. It is probably best to draw a discreet veil over the lamentable 'Joan at the Stake' which she made for Rossellennui six years later.This turned out to be Victor Fleming's swansong and although claiming it to be a 'disaster', he has succeeded here in combining pageantry and sensitivity, action and intimacy. He had last worked with Miss Bergman on 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' and he himself was something of a Jekyll and Hyde director if one thinks of his final film and the one that preceded it, 'Adventure'! Although his films are a mixed bag, Fleming is, in the words of Andrew Sarris, 'one of the few Metro directors who could occasionally make the lion roar.'
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Reviewed by planktonrules 7 / 10

A very well made failure.

"Joan of Arc" is a film with a much larger budget and more prestigious cast than you'd expect from a movie released by RKO. After all, RKO was clearly a second-tier studio whose output was far lower budgeted than most films from MGM, Twentieth Centure-Fox and Warner Brothers. But here, the studio released a prestige film...with vivid color, a LOT of familiar actors and a plot involving one of the great women of the late Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the public did NOT respond well to this and the film actually lost money. How?

Ingrid Bergman plays the title character and the story consists of her life from her middle teens to her execution at age 19. This is a SERIOUS problem, as when the film began she was about 15-16...and looked like the 33 years she actually was.

The other main problem with the film is that the filmmakers were too reverential towards the character...with dirge-like music and a pace slower than a snail! Telling it faster and with perhaps more behind the scenes intrigues would have helped. Regardless, I just kept wanting the film to speed up...particularly at the end when you KNOW what's going to happen and it takes too long to get there. Well made and nice looking...but also a film that might bore you as well.

By the way, although it didn't impact my viewing, the film was a pet project of Ingrid Bergman but she also was responsible for helping to tank the film. Negative publicity about her affair with a married man became public at about the time the film was released. This very unsaint-like behavior surely must have negatively impacted the box office numbers.

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