Master Rank #300

The Passion of Joan of Arc

1928

GCML Total8.7640% Greatness · 40% Engagement · 20% Ease

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

CastRenée Jeanne Falconetti · Eugene Silvain

FranceFrenchDrama / History110 minNot Rated
Sight & Sound; IMDb Top 250Silent FeatureModerate pace
Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List

Spoiler-free premise

Joan of Arc faces interrogation by clerics determined to force her to renounce her claims.

Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free

Nineteen-year-old Joan of Arc stands trial in Rouen before clerics demanding that she deny her visions and authority. Isolated from counsel, she answers theological traps while judges use documents, intimidation, and threatened torture to obtain a recantation.

Why it belongs

The Passion of Joan of Arc makes Falconetti's face a cinematic landscape, employing radical close-ups and fractured space to strip trial and faith to raw presence.

Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case

White walls, shaved heads, oblique architecture, eyeline discontinuity, rapid close-ups, and minimal establishing space deny courtroom stability—Renée Jeanne Falconetti's eyes and minute facial changes carry intellectual defiance and physical fear simultaneously.

Major award wins

No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.

Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20

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