Joan the Maid Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Joan the Maid Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 10, 2019

There has been no dearth of film and/or television properties about Joan of Arc, including such well remembered efforts as the 1928 silent classic by Carl Theodore Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Perhaps surprisingly, Dreyer’s film was not the first to exploit the strange and inspiring story of the so-called “Maid of Orléans”, and in fact none other than the redoubtable Georges Méliès made a silent about Joan in either 1899 or 1900, depending on the source, appropriately titled Joan of Arc, which rather incredibly is not even the first “film” about her, if the IMDb is to be believed. As early as 1898, a very short film called Execution of Joan of Arc appeared. Dreyer’s 1928 film was also not alone during that general time frame in depicting the tale, with a 1929 effort called Saint Joan the Maid offering what seems to be one of the first French versions of Joan’s story. Several later films have entered the annals of cinematic history for one reason or the other, including the 1948 film Joan of Arc which featured Ingrid Bergman in the title role of a film based on a play by Maxwell Anderson and which was directed by the legendary Victor Fleming. No recounting of Joan’s many film “appearances” would be complete without at least a passing mention of the film which introduced Jean Seberg to global audiences, Otto Preminger’s still rather controversial 1957 opus Saint Joan, which itself had a rather vaunted literary provenance, having been adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play by none other than Graham Greene. And so some jaded types may be wondering, “Do we really need another Joan of Arc movie?”, to which French auteur Jacques Rivette evidently replied, “No — you need two Joan of Arc movies,” as evidenced by his two part epic Joan the Maid, which arrived in 1994 and which required ticket buying patrons to pony up for two admission prices in order to catch both “installments”. Rivette's diptych about Joan may actually recall yet another film about the martyr, Robert Bresson's 1962 offering The Trial of Joan of Arc , with both French helmsman eschewing some of the traditional tropes of "epic historical" films in favor of a more intimate, personal depiction.

For reviews of the two films (i.e., parts) included on this release, please click on the following links:

Joan the Maid Part 1: The Battles Blu-ray review

Joan the Maid II: The Prisons Blu-ray review

Joan the Maid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of the release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Joan the Maid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality of the release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Joan the Maid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Only trailers for the two parts are included as supplements. Detailed listings can be found in the above linked reviews.

Joan the Maid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Joan the Maid probably doesn't have the sheer emotional force of the classic Dreyer film, but it's rather bracing if awfully long winded, and it has a rather rugged aspect courtesy of lots of location work and a handsome if basic production design. I'm not sure Bonnaire "de-glams" enough to ever make Joan completely believable, but many of the supporting performances are colorful, and Rivette offers some really sumptuous framings along the way. Technical merits are solid, and at least for those with an interest in this subject, Joan the Maid comes Recommended.