The Trial of Joan of Arc Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Trial of Joan of Arc Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson August 19, 2022

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, Robert Bresson's THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC has arrived courtesy of the British Film Institute. The BD-50 comes with a recently recorded lecture on Bresson by Geoff Andrew, an exclusive audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, three short films, a photo gallery, and illustrated booklet. Region "B" locked.

Robert Bresson's sixth feature Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (The Trial of Joan of Arc, 1962) is arguably the least cluttered and minimalist film made about Saint Joan. With a runtime of a little over an hour, it's also Bresson's shortest feature. Because the format of the film is predominantly a Q&A between English prelates and Joan, perhaps Bresson didn't want to make his movie any longer since it may test the endurance of the viewer? The film opens with a statement by Isabelle Romee, Joan's mother, at her daughter's trial of rehabilitation twenty-five years after she was burned at the stake. Following the main title cards, the film flashes back to the rigged trial where Joan the Maid (then Florence Carrez; later Florence Delay) faces her grand inquisitors. Bresson has taken the dialogue directly from the trial record curated by Pierre Champion. The director focuses on some of the numerous charges brought against Joan. For example, she testifies that she heard voices in her head from at least three saints. The English interlocutors view the voices as heresies. Joan also avers that she takes her command from God, a proclamation the court denounces as blasphemous. She is a virgin who refuses to wear women's clothing in fear that she could be raped, a subplot that the film takes on. Joan is steadfast in her beliefs and unwilling to cave in to France's arch-nemesis.

In typical Bresson fashion, the French auteur's camera often fixates on the hands and feet. For instance, it dollies in the opening shot as Isabelle proceeds to make her statement. It also tracks Joan's bare feet as she walks along the cobblestones on her way outside. The camera also magnifies the large shackles around Joan's hands in the beginning. Or on the bowl of food she claims made her sick. It's definitely made in the Bressonian style that clearly distinguishes it from Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), which uses far more close-ups and canted angles of framing. Bresson largely incorporates medium and medium long shots. It's interesting how he groups the onlookers behind Joan during the proceedings. Some are lensed in shallow focus while others are given a sharper focus. Bresson alternates the staging of the shots and the personnel who inhabit the frame to differentiate one day of the trial from another.

Bresson is famous for not employing any professional actors and this picture features not a one. Florence Delay, who had not acted on stage or screen before this film and would go on to become an academician and translator, portrays Joan with controlled feistiness and a wonderful simplicity. Arthur Le Bau is also very good as the sympathetic Jean Massieu. Joan is unjustly without counsel but seeks Massieu's nonverbal cues when she's unsure of how to answer. For instance, whenever she receives a difficult question, she'll peer over to Massieu who will raise his hand or fingers about how she should approach it.

The Trial of Joan of Arc was critically very well received in Europe. Penelope Gilliatt wrote in The Observer that it's a "hermetic masterpiece with an impact of the kick of a gun." A film critic for the The Guardian wasn't overly impressed with it on first viewing but elevated it to an "overpowering masterpiece" on the second. Bresson's films were not widely distributed in America during the '60s and this film only received limited play with a mixed reception. In her two-and-a-half out of four-star review, Kate Cameron of the Daily (NY) News described the production as "primitive" with "dimly perceived" characters. Newsday's Joseph Gelmis criticized the movie for its lack of drama and theatricality.

The picture was part of UCLA's winter film series in January 1965 when it was paired with Renoir's A Day in the Country (1939). It also played in San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis, and Chicago.

The Trial of Joan of Arc Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The BFI's new release of The Trial of Joan of Arc comes on an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 34.45 GB). The following text appears in the BFI's booklet: "The Trial of Joan of Arc was scanned at 4K and restored by MK2 with the support of CNC. The film is presented here in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 with original mono audio. Technical production: Peter Stanley, Douglas Weir (BFI)." When I initially saw the technical spec on the BFI's website that the film was going to be presented in HD, I had modest expectations, not knowing that the DI was sourced from a 4K restoration. It has exceeded my expectations. Léonce-Henri Burel's cinematography looks clean and crisp. The grayscale is superb with inky blacks. There's very little wear on this print. I've included a graphical comparison between the 2005 French MK2 PAL disc (which is the same on the Artificial Eye) and the BFI transfer. You'll notice how contrast and facial detail are superior on the Blu-ray. The BFI has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 37604 kbps.

Screenshot #s 1-15, 17, 19, 21, 23, & 25 = BFI 2022 BD-50
Screenshot #s 16, 18, 20, 22, & 24 = MK2 2005 DVD-9

The BFI has provided nine chapters for the 65-minute film.

The Trial of Joan of Arc Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The BFI has supplied a French LPCM Dual Mono (2304 kbps, 24-bit). The restored monaural track doesn't contain any bad hiss, scratches, or audible dropouts. A majority of the movie features dialogue spoken in French with some English, too. Pitch and delivery are largely consistent throughout. Bresson makes effective use of off-screen sound (e.g., "Death to the witch!") Bresson didn't unusually incorporate much music in his pictures and The Trial of Joan of Arc is no different. There are the sounds of church bells in the beginning and militaristic drumbeats that bookend the film (likely courtesy of composer Francis Seyrig).

The BFI has included optional English subtitles that appear in a relatively small to medium-sized font with white lettering. The BFI don't include any information about who did the translation. At the end of the subtitle track on my MK2 DVD, there's this notice: "Subtitles: Ian Burley; subtitling by TVS - TITRA FILM."

The Trial of Joan of Arc Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The BFI has included some new extras while lacking several older ones on other editions. Apparently, French-based Potemkine Films did not license the recent interviews it recorded with Florence Delay, film historian Hervé Dumont, and director Olivier Assayas on its 2019 release. In addition, MK2 and Artificial Eye released DVDs in 2005 that contained two brief archival interviews with Bresson, a fascinating re-visit Delay made to the film's original shooting location, an episode about Joan of Arc from the TV series Burning Issues of History, and a 1961 speech by French Minister of Cultural Affairs André Malraux. Subtitles on the MK2 and AE are available in English, German, Spanish, and Italian.

• NEW An Introduction to Robert Bresson (28:42, 1080p) - film writer and programmer Geoff Andrew discusses Bresson's body of work in this 2022 talk presented at BFI Southbank. This is more of a lecture and fairly detailed overview of Bresson's filmography than a video intro that you'll see accompany a film's Blu-ray. Andrew analyzes some of Bresson's movies and shows clips to the audience. The only clip shown in this piece is from Pickpocket (others are referred to but not shown). The Trial of Joan of Arc is mentioned but not really examined. A pretty solid presentation on the French auteur. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Audio Commentary by Filmmaker and Writer Kat Ellinger - in this feature-length track, Ellinger examines some of the neglected aspects of Joan of Arc on celluloid, which she feels Bresson has fulfilled in his screen incarnation. She addresses those as well as discussing how The Trial of Joan of Arc's main character and themes compare to the themes and various protagonists in other films by Bresson. Ellinger spends a little time going into Bresson's biography and a few of the other motion pictures about Joan of Arc. This is an outstanding commentary. In English, not subtitled.

• Women's Work in Wartime (1918; 7:54, 1080p) - a propaganda short depicting the acceptable roles for the women of Britain at a time of war. Silent with musical accompaniment patterned after a Scott Joplin tune.

• Masculinity in Modes (1931; 1:06, 1080p) - another live-action short film hand-drawn with stencil colors. This emanated from France's female-centered "cinemagazine," Eve's Review. It displays the more masculine trends in Parisian couture in the early '30s. Silent with more Joplin-inspired music.

• The Legend of Joan of Arc ballet (1958; 1:48, 1080p; extract) - an excerpt from the cinemagazine USSR Today, which shows Nikolai Peiko's ballet being performed at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, Moscow.

• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:23, upconverted to 1080p) - this is really a theatrical teaser trailer for Procès de Jeanne d'Arc. It hasn't been restored and is presented in 1:78:1 16x9 widescreen. The French LPCM Dual Mono mix is subtitled in English.

• Stills Gallery (2:51, 1080p) - a slide show featuring twenty-two on-set photographs during the making of The Trial of Joan of Arc. The archival stills are overall in relatively good to very good condition. Many feature star Florence Delay. There's only one of Bresson. They're culled from MK2 and the BFI National Archive.

• Illustrated Booklet - an enclosed booklet containing new essays and film stills from The Trial of Joan of Arc. Lillian Crawford contributes a very fine essay tracing the historical details of the two trials and how they're interpreted in Bresson's film. She also penned a second piece on Joan of Arc's clothing, feminine apparel during the 1960s, and good analysis of the three archival shorts included on this disc. Richard Combs delivers a solid interpretive analysis of The Trial of Joan of Arc. There's also a printed list of full film credits.

The Trial of Joan of Arc Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While The Trial of Joan of Arc covers several of the same sections of the trial that Dreyer's film does, the former is remarkably different on thematic and especially stylistic levels. While Dreyer valued architectural details in his picture about Joan of Arc, Bresson's aesthetics concentrate more on the characters in profile. While this isn't one of Bresson's very best movies, it's still a mighty fine one. I'd like to see several more Bresson films released on Blu-ray in both the UK and US. The BFI's BD-50 delivers a great transfer and a very clean lossless audio presentation. Kat Ellinger is even higher on the film than I am and her audio commentary is excellent. If you own one of the European DVDs, hold on to it as the previous supplements haven't been ported over. A STRONG RECOMMENDATION for The Trial of Joan of Arc.