Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962)

Director:

Robert Bresson

Writer:

Robert Bresson (writer)

Release Date:

18 October 1974 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

A reconstruction of the trial of Joan of Arc (based entirely on the transcripts of the real-life trial)...

Plot Keywords:

Medieval | Interrogation | Trial | French Court | Smoke

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Florence Delay	...	Jeanne d'Arc (as Florence Carrez)
Jean-Claude Fourneau	...	Bishop Cauchon
Roger Honorat	...	Jean Beaupere
Marc Jacquier	...	Jean Lemaitre
Jean Gillibert	...	Jean de Chatillon
Michel Herubel	...	Frère Isambert de la Pierre
André Régnier	...	D'Estivet
Arthur Le Bau	...	Jean Massieu
Marcel Darbaud	...	Nicolas de Houppeville
Philippe Dreux	...	Frère Martin Ladvenu
Paul-Robert Mimet	...	Guillaume Erard
Gérard Zingg	...	Jean-Lohier

Also Known As:

Trial of Joan of Arc

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-8 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Although the story takes place in 1431, Jeanne's hairstyle is strictly a popular mode of the early 1960s. This is not a "goof" but an intention on the director's part to help young people identify with the character.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Jisatsu saakuru (2002)

Short, lovely-looking work

Here's what I saw: a confused teenager (it may be misleading to call a nineteen-year-old woman a teenager, and who knows what being nineteen meant in the Middle Ages) trying hard to cut a fine figure, and succeeding better than most - which is to say, not very well. Bresson lets us know she IS inspired, she DOES court supernatural influence, probably God's, but somehow this doesn't change anything. It's clear Joan is as clueless as everyone else of her era. Sweet, but clueless.

This film is only just over an hour long, and although the trial meanders - no-one really knows what he or she is doing - there's no sense of padding. It's a swift, clean, beautiful fable. I'm not sure it has a point: if it does, it lies in the short sharp shock we get at the end. All that legalistic fuffing around and then something decisive and fantastic happens. Very few films can suddenly introduce fantasy at the end and get away with it: this is one; "A Canterbury Tale" (1944) is another. Although Bresson's film is less ambitious, and succeeds partly because it gives itself little opportunity to set a foot wrong, it's still quite a feat.