Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £6.99 a month
The Passion of Joan of Arc
An incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema, Carl Dreyer's deeply moving biopic features one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.
Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Overview
Carl Dreyer's deeply moving biopic features one of the most desperate, brilliant performances ever captured in cinema’s history. Actress Renée Falconetti, as the 19 year old Joan condemned to death, was brutally forced by Dreyer to kneel on stone to show the pain on her face. Few films since have used close-ups as intensely and overwhelmingly.
The Passion of Joan of Arc remains an unassailable giant of early cinema, a transcendental film comprising tears, fire and madness that relies on extreme close-ups of the human face. Renée Falconetti was 35 when she played the role of Joan (a teenager when condemned to death in 1431). Dreyer brutally extracted a desperate, brilliant performance from the actress, forcing her to kneel on stone to show the pain on her face and insisting that they shot in silence. In the 2012 Sight and Sound poll, Joan had risen to no. 9. But in 2010 it was designated the most influential film of all time in the Toronto International Film Festival’s ‘Essential 100’ list, where Jonathan Rosenbaum described it as “the pinnacle of silent cinema – and perhaps of the cinema itself”. The piano score is performed by Japanese silent film composer Mie Yanashita. Ranked joint 20th in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll.
Related
Anselm Anselm
Biopic 2023 94 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders' stately and beautifully scored study of Anselm Kiefer.
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Biopic 2024 90 mins Director: Thomas von Steinaecker
A riveting and all-encompassing portrait of the iconic German filmmaker.
Dread Beat and Blood Dread Beat and Blood
Biopic 1979 44 mins Director: Franco Rosso
Vibrant documentary portrait of dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson, fighting racism with the spoken word on the streets of 1970s Brixton.
Rebel Dread Rebel Dread
Biopic 2021 83 mins Director: William E. Badgley
This is the story of the iconic Don Letts, the coolest cultural polymath – narrated by the man himself.
Vita & Virginia Vita & Virginia
Biopic 2018 110 mins Director: Chanya Button
Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki relive a literary love affair, fiery and forbidden, with a remarkable legacy.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Biopic 1974 109 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s poetic account of the historical character who captivated 19th-century Nuremberg after emerging from isolation after 16 years in a cellar.
Nosferatu Nosferatu
Horror 1922 89 mins Silent Director: F.W. Murnau
This influential Dracula adaptation contains some of the most famous images of expressionist film, and remains shocking and stylish after 100 years.
Paris, Texas Paris, Texas
Drama 1984 145 mins Director: Wim Wenders
The late, great Harry Dean Stanton's finest role came as the near-mute Travis, on a journey across America to reunite his family, in Wim Wenders' moving tale of loss and redemption.
Cléo from 5 to 7 Cléo from 5 to 7
Drama 1962 91 mins Director: Agnès Varda
Agnes Varda’s classic character study follows a successful pop singer as she wanders around Paris while awaiting the results of serious medical tests.
Crash Crash
Drama 1996 100 mins Director: David Cronenberg
Technology and sexuality meet in head-on collision in David Cronenberg’s controversial adaptation of writer J.G. Ballard’s hugely transgressive 1973 novel, starring James Spader and Holly Hunter.
Citizen Kane Citizen Kane
Drama 1941 119 mins Director: Orson Welles
Given extraordinary freedom by Hollywood studio RKO for his debut film, boy wonder Orson Welles created this notoriously brilliant portrait of a media giant.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Drama 1975 202 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman's magnificent epic of experimental cinema offering a feminist perspective on recurrent events of everyday life.
Ordet. Ordet.
Drama 1955 125 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s beautifully photographed tale explores the religious intolerance and familial tensions within a Danish farming family.
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Comedy 2023 163 mins Director: Radu Jude
Radu Jude’s follow-up to the Golden Bear-winning Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is a pin-sharp, caustically funny critique of workplace culture and oppression.
Everybody in Our Family Everybody in Our Family
Drama 2012 103 mins Director: Radu Jude
Radu Jude delivers on the promise of his first feature, The Happiest Girl in the World, with this superb black comedy.
Night Tide Night Tide
Fantasy 1961 85 mins Director: Curtis Harrington
A young Dennis Hopper is on shore leave from the Navy when he falls for a mysterious woman who performs as a mermaid, in this intoxicating cult classic from underground filmmaker Curtis Harrington.
Apostasy Apostasy
Drama 2018 95 mins Director: Dan Kokotajlo
A deeply religious family must decide whether to stick by their relation or abandon her, in this striking debut from Daniel Kokotajlo - a prizewinner at BFI London Film Festival 2017.
Akenfield Akenfield
Drama 1975 98 mins Director: Peter Hall
Peter Hall’s extraordinary, long-unseen work of sublime poetic realism traces three generations of one Suffolk family and their lives in the farming industry.
The White Reindeer The White Reindeer
Horror 1953 68 mins Director: Erik Blomberg
The wife of a reindeer herder acquires a potion to make her an irresistible object of desire, but at a terrible cost, in this extraordinary vampiric fairy-tale set amongst the starkly beautiful fells of Finnish Lapland.