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

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Joan the Maid Part 1: The Battles Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 10, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Joan the Maid .

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.

In a way it's maybe a little ironic that the first part of Rivette's two section opus is subtitled The Battles, since there's nary an actual skirmish in sight until well into this over two and a half hour offering. There are "battles" of a more interpersonal nature, though, as young maid Joan (Sandrine Bonnaire) is convinced she has heard directly from God and that she alone can save France from English invaders. The film wends a slow but deliberate path as it details Joan's attempts to be taken seriously, and the repeated obstacles she faces as she proceeds. Rivette utilizes a couple of frankly kind of odd stylistic conceits that may detract and/or distract from what is often an almost verité-esque ambience in the film: first, there are a lot of interstitial titles detailing places, dates and other facts, and second, there are about an equal number of “confessionals” delivered straight to the camera by various characters along the way. Both of these conceits are arguably distancing factors that don’t particularly help to establish the intimate environment Rivette is obviously aiming for.

Joan the Maid Part 1: The Battles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Joan the Maid is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Cohen is touting a new 4K restoration of both films, and they both look largely sumptuous in this sometimes surprisingly scenic looking presentation. Detail levels are generally excellent throughout, with elements like the pill on fabrics or the roughhewn wood of some structures in various locations looking virtually palpable at times. The palette is just slightly tamped down a lot of the time, so that reds can look slightly brown or blues have a bit of a purple undertone, but on the whole everything looks natural and quite nicely burnished. A lot of the outdoor location work offers substantial depth of field with well above average levels of fine detail even in some wide shots. There are occasional moments of less than adequate shadow definition in just a few passing dark or nighttime shots. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation and I noticed no compression anomalies. For those who care about such things, the English subtitles are forced and can't be removed.

Joan the Maid Part 1: The Battles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Joan the Maid features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original French. There's significant if sometimes subtle surround activity courtesy of a glut of ambient environmental effects in many of the outdoor scenes, with good directionality and often smart placement of individual effects in discrete channels. Lovers of early music will be delighted by the score by the venerable Jordi Savall, which also resides quite comfortably in the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.

Joan the Maid Part 1: The Battles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Trailer (1080p; 1:02)


• Restoration Trailer (1080p; 1:01)

Joan the Maid Part 1: The Battles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Part 1 of Joan the Maid does an excellent job in giving some of the lesser known back story of Joan's trek toward greatness and eventual martyrdom, but it's arguably a bit short on its titular action element, something that may disappoint those coming to the film looking for a traditional "historical epic". Bonnaire is an interesting Joan, perhaps a bit too glamorous for her (or the character's) own good, but the film has an air of authenticity, even if the intertitles and first person confessionals tend to be distancing factors. Technical merits are first rate, and for armchair historians if for no one else, Joan the Maid Part 1: The Battles comes Recommended.