Joan the Maid Part 2: The Prisons Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Joan the Maid Part 2: The Prisons 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.

While part two of Joan the Maid employs the subtitle The Prisons, it actually has more of “The Battles” than Part 1, though things turn sour for Joan quickly enough that she is soon ensconced in a web of political and religious subterfuges from which she is never able to fully escape. This part of Rivette’s film is distinctly reminiscent of Bresson’s take on Joan’s trial (and it may also bring to mind memories of Jean Anouilh’s play The Lark, for those who have seen it), and it builds rather inexorably toward its tragic conclusion. Joan is perhaps just slightly less sympathetic in this version than she is in other cinematic adaptations, being shown to be at least temporarily willing to sacrifice her moral high ground if it means saving her skin.

Joan the Maid Part 2: The Prisons 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 2: The Prisons 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 2: The Prisons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Trailer (1080p; 00:56)

Joan the Maid Part 2: The Prisons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Part 2 of Joan the Maid is arguably a bit more visceral than the first part, due to both some more "traditional" action elements but perhaps even more so due to the almost philosophical and indeed even metaphysical aspects that accrue around Joan's trial. This is a rather scathing indictment of a "marriage" of church and state, but quite interestingly, Joan comes off as maybe a little ambivalent herself about her "true calling". As with the first part of this rather long opus, technical merits are first rate, and Joan the Maid Part 2: The Prisons comes Recommended.