The Trial of Joan of Arc

11/10/2022

There is something especially evocative about the way in which this quite short film has been put together by Robert Bresson and Léonce-Henri Burel. In just over an hour, it offers us a startlingly bleak interpretation of the last weeks of Joan of Arc's life, imprisoned, manipulated and subjected to immense amounts of intellectual cruelty by a church and a state that was determined that she should burn - regardless of any guilt or innocence. Florence Delay is very effective in the tital role - probably the best characterisation of this woman I have ever seen. Jean-Claude Fourneau is also at the top of his game as the prosecuting bishop "Cauchon" offering us a vision of a man as devoid of any Christian kindness as it is possible to imagine. Given everyone knows what did happen to this tortu