Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc

3.00
    Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
    2017

    Synopsis

    France, 1425. In the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, the young Jeannette, at the still tender age of 8, looks after her sheep in the small village of Domremy. One day, she tells her friend Hauviette how she cannot bear to see the suffering caused by the English. Madame Gervaise, a nun, tries to reason with the young girl, but Jeannette is ready to take up arms for the salvation of souls and the liberation of the Kingdom of France. Carried by her faith, she will become Joan of Arc.

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    Cast

    • Lise Leplat PrudhommeJeanette
    • Jeanne VoisinJeanne
    • Lucile GauthierHauviette 8 ans
    • Victoria LefebvreHauviette 13 ans
    • Aline CharlesMadame Gervaise / Sainte Marguerite
    • Élise CharlesMadame Gervaise / Sainte Catherine
    • Nicolas LeclaireDurand Lassois
    • Gery De PoorterJacques d'Arc

    Recommendations

    • 83

      The Film Stage

      While it’s definitely hard not to crack a smile at all the head-banging that ensues, or how almost outright tacky and frankly uncool the film risks being at times with its bevy of musical numbers, they speak to the overall earnestness and conviction that arises from the film.
    • 80

      The New York Times

      “Jeannette” throws the modern back at the medieval, making no distinction between religious ecstasy and that experienced in certain contemporary contexts of music and ritual. It’s a provocative proposition that yields a film of genuine spiritual dimension.
    • 80

      Village Voice

      There’s no hint of irony in this film (I don’t think it would work if there were); in fact, Jeannette succeeds in its earnestness, adapting its words from Charles Peguy’s works, but countering it with the pure, joyous silliness of its presentation.
    • 80

      The New Yorker

      Dumont films Joan’s spiritual conflicts and confrontations with playful exuberance but avoids frivolity; the ardent actors infuse Joan’s spirit of revolt with the eternal passions of youth.
    • 70

      The Hollywood Reporter

      The fact that the director once again displays a true mastery of his craft, from Deffontaines’ exquisite framing to the decision to record all the songs live rather than having them lip-synched (apparently one of the only times this has been done since Straub-Huillet’s 1975 movie Moses and Aron), makes for a transfixing, if sometimes excruciating, cinematic experience.
    • 67

      The A.V. Club

      It’s often more strikingly funny-looking than laugh-out-loud funny.
    • 67

      IndieWire

      Even though it doesn’t aim for outright comedy, Dumont doesn’t deny the material some levity.
    • 63

      Slant Magazine

      It's true that the disorientation produced in the collision of Igorrr's frenetic style-mashing and Dumont's unadorned long-take aesthetic ensures that the film feels remarkably distinct from prior cinematic adaptations of Joan of Arc's life, but it's also hard not to wonder how this particular story might have played without the farfetched musical conceit grafted atop it.

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