Synopsis
In the 15th century, both France and England stake a blood claim for the French throne. Believing that God had chosen her, young Joan leads the army of the King of France. When she is captured, the Church sends her for trial on charges of heresy. Refusing to accept the accusations, the graceful Joan will stay true to her mission.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- Lise Leplat PrudhommeJeanne
- Fabrice LuchiniRoi Charles VII
- Jean-François CauseretMonseigneur Pierre Cauchon
- Annick LavievilleMadame Jacqueline
- Daniel DienneMaître Thomas de Courcelles
- Fabien FenetMaître Nicolas l’oiseleur
- Robert HanicotteMessire Jean D’Estivet
- Justine HerbezMarie
- Yves HabertMaître William Haiton
- Benoît RobailMonseigneur Regnauld de Chartres
Recommandations
- 80
The New York Times
Here and in the earlier picture it’s perhaps easy to apprehend Dumont’s approach with a “What’s this oddball up to now?” smirk. But if Dumont is joking at all, it’s a form of what used to be called “kidding on the square.” - 80
The New Yorker
Dumont turns the tale into a dialectical spectacle: he stages military musters like Busby Berkeley productions, seethes at the torturers’ rationalizations, delights in hearing his actors declaim the scholars’ sophistries, and thrills in the pugnacious simplicity of Joan’s defiant responses, which reduce her captors’ pride to ridicule. - 67
IndieWire
Dumont regards history as a focal point for national identity, finding France’s leadership rooted in dry pontification and meandering religious fervor. He gives us a complex world so keen on taking itself seriously that it becomes parody, leaving only Joan’s stone-faced expression to point to a higher truth. - 60
Screen Daily
Joan of Arc is in some ways a more conventional drama than its predecessor, but is still intransigently individual. Yet even with a subject as eternally popular as Joan, it’s hard to imagine the film making waves with a mainstream audience or bringing new revelations to Dumont’s long-term followers. - 58
The A.V. Club
Less intended, perhaps, is the fact that a viewer may find themselves identifying with one of Joan’s ecclesiastical jurors, who insists at every opportunity that his colleagues stop wasting their breath and burn her already. He’s right in the sense that the church court is just dragging its feet to a foregone conclusion. In its own way, so is the film. - 50
Slant Magazine
Bruno Dumont seems perpetually aware of the trap of familiarity, which may be why he indulges in some of his most inscrutable filmmaking. - 40
The Guardian
Opaque and unrewarding. - 30
The Hollywood Reporter
This is the pure case of a filmmaker doing whatever the hell (sorry, Joan) they want and leaving us to contend with the results. Enthusiasts of the prolific Dumont ... will surely get something out of this latest effort — as perhaps will Joan of Arc movie adaptation completists. But beyond that niche, many will find watching the 137-minute movie akin to being burnt at the stake.
