Saint Joan

Joan of Arc died in Rouen, France in Normandy on May 30, 1431. She was burned at the stake.

This movie is one of my all time favorite Christian flicks. I'm no movie critic; I just love good stories and look more for content/value than anything else. This movie is incredible, makes me want to reread Dickens's Tale of Two Cities. I prefer this version of Joan of Arc over any others out there. Bernard Shaw's play by itself is a classic. It's a story that left me pondering over the involvement of various churches and governments in war, particularly, in this tale, the Catholic church and English government. The impoverished, over-taxed French peasant class rallied round Joan at the siege of Orleans, her ill-clad compatriots scrambling over walls and ditches to fight the English. Makes me wonder why the church or state sometimes creates the conditions, e.g. oppression and poverty, which lead to war in the first place. It's definitely something to think about this Easter season, not to mention in an election year.


A noble failure   September 26, 2000
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Director Otto Preminger's stab at the George Bernard Shaw play was pilloried for the miscasting of Jean Seberg in the title role, but she's hardly the sole reason why this well-intentioned film version doesn't work. Richard Widmark gives one of his silliest screen performances as the Dauphin, and many of the smaller roles are quite hammily portrayed as well.

Still, this VHS version does include a very well-made behind-the-scenes featurette (for once, you don't have to have a DVD player to enjoy this sort of extra). SAINT JOAN is still worth seeing, if only to appreciate how much more confident an actress Seberg would become in BONJOUR TRISTESSE (also directed by Preminger) and, of course, in Godard's BREATHLESS.

(And if you're a fan of this movie or of Seberg in general, don't miss Mark Rappaport's amazing un-documentary FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG.)