以戲服人 Film Analysis: The Passion of Joan of Arc, Part 2

You cannot know the history of silent film unless you know the face of Renee Maria Falconetti.

- Roger Ebert

In Dreyer’s movie universe, his characters act in Dreyer’s way. Dreyer’s prime concern was never about any sort of the so-called psychological realism. He was more interested in the spiritual understanding and human relationships that his audience could identify with. Dreyer’s style was stark, ascetic and often minimalist. His detractors may call this ‘cold’ and ‘technical’, yet I suppose these are the qualities that appeal to me. Dreyer’s characters are often estranged from their surroundings, no matter it originates from rules, religion, norms, or an expressionistic vampire world. Their courage is derived from a firm commitment to what they truly believe in, even if the potential trade-offs will lead to their demises. With an unsentimental style like Bresson, Melville, or Ozu, Dreyer’s original style has been able to provoke emotion from his audience and also able to strike resonance among them.

Disruption of the classic D.W. Griffith horizontal line.

One of the most wonderful aspect of ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’, belongs to the monumental performance of Maria Falconetti. She successfully captures the confusions, ambivalence and hardships in her quest to get closer to God. The film is about her ‘passion’, and it is her intense facial expressions that have casted a significant emotional power onto the audience. It is known that, in order to ‘prepare’ Falconetti for the role, Dreyer ordered her to kneel on the stone-paved set for hours before shooting started. This ‘Bressonian’ treatment was used to wipe her off any of the ‘performance’ (or sentimental) factor, and to make her portray the martyr ‘as she was’. Of course, Dreyer and Bresson had rather different treatments on the theme of Joan of Arc, and I have compared them in the following table.

Dreyer's and Bresson's 'Joan of Arc'. Prepared by Ed Law.

The plight of Joan of Arc has been identified by many, including, famously, a fictional character known as ‘Nana’, the protagonist in Jean-Luc Godard’s film ‘Vivre Sa Vie’, where her misfortune would lead her to a tragic path of prostitution.

Nana (played by Anna Karina) weeping while watching 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' in Godard's 'Vivre Sa Vie'.

While the legacy of Joan of Arc has been firmly cemented, the interpretation of her case remains open. Over the course of history, many has switched to a more secular, or psychological interpretation of Joan’s situation. Some propose that her holy vision is merely paranoid delusions or the possible side-effects of some psychological or physiological illness. Whether her divine insights are spiritual or pathological, we should be open-minded and respect these viewpoints, as there really are not enough objective evidence to disprove any of these perspectives. And, I suppose this is what Ms. Falconetti has been able to deliver in her stunning performance. In the film, Dreyer has illustrated the challenge of transcending oneself, and the mental turmoil of believing in one’s faith. Others may call you crazy, marginalize you, and make you feel ‘out of joint’. Falconetti was more than able to portray all the conflicting feelings in her spiritual quest, her final moments of her human existence. She showed fright, frustration, paranoia, and most important, euphoria, during her tug-of-war with the corrupt judges. The judge attempted to bluff her by stating that she would be alone if she did not confess her crime, yet then she gleefully said, ‘Yes Alone... with God!’. What a verbal counter-attack! Joan knew that she had to pass all the spiritual barriers in order to come closer to God, and when she could link to God, with her head slightly tilting up, her face showed a sense of ecstasy. I feel that Falconetti has nicely struck a balance in this iconic sense, as she could show both, rather conflictingly, a paranoid or hallucinatory feeling (like getting high on LSD), and also a euphoric and transcendental sentiment. To be capable of conveying such a multiplicity of emotions in a single frame, serves as a testament to Falconetti’s ingenious skills. Her face will linger in the audience’s mind for long...