Please remember: for next class please read both Barsam chapter 5 ("Acting") and the three very brief essays by Balasz ("The Close-Up," "The Face of Man") and Barthes ("The Face of Garbo") available on reserve. The incentive is that you won't have to do any reading for the following week.
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"The Passion of Joan of Arc" is a series of close-up shots that depict the close-up narrative of the trial and execution of Joan of Arc. Interestingly, her rise, leadership and capture are not included in this minimalist film; Carl Th. Dreyer focuses mainly, rather, on the trial, and fierce intellect of this illiterate woman.
In this way, many shots stand out; since most shots were of the white walls against Joan's face and those of the accusing men of the trial, all details are explicitly represented and easy to catch.
For example, about half-way through the film, the "nicer" of the men - the one who interestingly enough, resembles Joan - says, "Allez cherchez les Sacraments!", or "Go get the last Sacraments". The man's head is directly situated underneath the point of a dark, outlined and inverted triangle that that is juxtaposed against the white wall.
Of course, this triangle holds many symbolic implications: it represents not only the trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit but also the cross of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, the number three represented through this image also serves as an anchoring point of what is being depicted narratively: an interrogation, torture, and finally execution.
This particular shot is similarly replicated later, after Joan confesses that she has lied to save her life; this time, the man is underneath a subtler triangle formed by where the walls' meet, in the corner. Threes are even discussed directly in this shot: Joan's martyrdom, deliverance and death are at stake. In this way she is likening herself with Christ, himself; literally, she is a daughter of God.
The inversion of the first triangle is also worth coming back to. The entire film (and legend) is all about inversions, not limited to the following: right vs. wrong; male vs. female; God vs. Satan; stability vs. riot; and even fire as the protector of her soul, but destroyer of her corporeal body.
In any case, because of the film's minimalism, the simple act of throwing a triangle on a wall within a shot is very striking, and can be really intimately discussed, as I've definitely proven with my ramble...
There were two shots specifically that stood out to me.
The first was at the beginning of the film when one of the judges asked Joan how old she was. This shot shows Joan stopping to think hard for the answer to that question. It even appeared that she was counting her fingers. This shot demonstrates Joan's innocence and how vulnerable she is to the cruelty in the world. Later on in the film there was another shot that demonstrated this when a priest brought Joan a letter from her King, and she claimed, "I can't read!"
The other shot was in more of the middle of the film. It was after Joan refused the 'body of christ' when she is lying in bed after she fainted. As the judges walk away in disgust, Joan throws her hands over her face and covers it. The camera was at a dutch angle shot. It was tilted to represent the confusion brought on to Joan from this deranged environment that she's in. The whole situation is chaotic and obscure, demonstrated by the off angle of the camera. I'd also like to note that her finger nails were very dirty, which I think again represents her child-like qualities.
There were a number of highly symbolic images in this film that when coupled with the unique shooting style made Joan of Arc a very powerful film. However one of my two favorite shots in this film was closer to the end when Joan is recieving the last sacrements before heading to her death. The priest who wrote the fake letter from the king and has been a large part of her downfall comes to stand at the corner near her room. The particular shot is an medium closeup of his face as he watches Joan - his eyeline with her room has been established. He looks almost remorseful, like he's no longer entirely sure that she deserves to burn to death at the stake. I felt that he seemed to finally see her devotion but that it was too late to do anything. In a silent film composed almost entirely of closeups the actors have to be able to tell the story with a single look and I just felt that that particular shot encapsulated the emotions of the tragic ending of Joan of Arc.
The shot that I liked the most in "The Passion on Joan of Arc," is when Joan recieves her las Sacraments and she hols her hands up to pray. The walls behind her are extremely white and there is a window that has bars on it, but these bars appear in the shape of a crucifix. I really like this shot because it is so powerful. It is so simple and you can really see Joan's emotions well, all the viewer has to focus on is Joan because the background is so plain. Here Joan seems to be relieved that she can die knowing that she followed what her heart told her to do, no matter how many priests were pressuring her and that what she is doing will satisfy her god.
The shot that I liked the most in "The Passion on Joan of Arc," is when Joan recieves her las Sacraments and she hols her hands up to pray. The walls behind her are extremely white and there is a window that has bars on it, but these bars appear in the shape of a crucifix. I really like this shot because it is so powerful. It is so simple and you can really see Joan's emotions well, all the viewer has to focus on is Joan because the background is so plain. Here Joan seems to be relieved that she can die knowing that she followed what her heart told her to do, no matter how many priests were pressuring her and that what she is doing will satisfy her god.
In a movie shot mostly in close up it's really hard to tell the shots apart. Do I like the shot of Joan crying? or the Shot of Joan crying... My favorite shot is of the the Judge/Priest peaking around the corner as Joan is taking her final communion. No particular reason why. To me, you could see the sorrow in the man's eyes. Of course this shot is put here to redeem the Judge/Priest. Nonetheless it still a striking shot. That the high and mighty holy figure has to crouch and sneak around in a church.
The shots I enjoyed the most in Carl Dreyer's "The Passion Of Joan Of Arc" are the more disturbing shots in the film. The one that sticks in my mind is when Joan is outside the courthouse and sees a man digging her grave. He also throws a skull on top of the mound of dirt he's built. These are the most memorable shots in this film to me because I can only imagine what would be going through an individual's mind to see your grave being dug. The establishing shot of the grave being dug is a medium long shot, and the following shots showing the skull is a close up and we see a worm crawling through the right eye socket. I believe this imagery represents the corruption of the Church and reflects the disgusting nature of the police officers mentally torturing Joan earlier in the film.
For me The Passion of Joan of Arc was deffinatly my least favourite film we've watched. I find it very hard to single out one shot to discuss that really 'moved' me. The film was shot in mostly close ups and although i understand the goal Dryer was trying to achieve it got somewhat repetative for my likeings. To be quite honest i felt as though i was wathing an 80 minute version of Sinéad O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares' music video. However, the shot that i enjoyed the most was probably of the burnt skull with the maggots crawling out of it. I found it to be the most interesting part. Perhaps it is that i came into the film with differnt expectations after watching the 1948 version with Ingrid Bergman.
My favorite shot in The Passion of Joan of Arc was some time during the trail. I can’t quite remember exactly at what point the shot occurs, only that it happens sometime while Joan is being questioned. It starts with a shot of Joan’s face tilted to one angle, and then tilting to the other. I’m not sure if it’s the camera rolling from one Dutch angle to another or if Joan is just swaying right and left on her own (it was hard to tell because the shot was so close), but either way it seemed to imply that something was awry, such as Joan questioning her own faith. After that the camera spins around quickly giving a blurred panoramic view of everybody surrounding Joan. These kinds of camera movements are an effective way of relating a sense of distress to the viewer.
This week, the shot that moved me in "The Passion of Joan of Arc" was the shot of the shadow of the window frame on the floor of the church. The window frame resembled a cross, giving Joan a sign that there was still hope for her. The shot following showed one of the priests walking past the window, covering the shadow. When the “cross” disappeared, it implied that there was no hope for Joan. We knew from that point on that she was doomed to die and suffer, no matter how hard she fought for her life. I felt this was as an interesting use of symbolism.
The shot that moved me in "The Passion of Joan of Arc" was the shot of Joan when she first sees the Eucharist. The shot is a close up of Joans face, the close up reveals Joan's joy and happiness at seeing the Eucharist. This shot stood out for me because of the contrast it created, all of the shots throughout the movie involve Joan being either sad or emotionally distraught. This shot shows Joan's love for God, and the happiness she derives from worshiping him. On a general note I found this movie difficult to watch for two reasons, one was because of how emotional the story and the actors were and second because all the shots were close ups. I believe that close ups are able to reaveal immense details about the characters, but since the entire movie was close up I felt that they lost their ability to peer into the characters feelings and thoughts.
The shot that moved me in "The Passion of Joan of Arc" was when Joane was sitting in her cell with the jailers. The jailers keep laughing and making fun of her, while Joane has this soulless look in her face like she has no hope and she is not willing to fight her aggressors.
The medium shot shows Joane in the middle of the shot wearing a straw crown, while one of the jailers puts an arrow between her arms, Joan is just looking at the ceiling away from the jailers, then the shot cuts to the jailers sitting and laughing.
The straw crown reminded me of when the Roman's put a thorn crown on Jesus.
The shot that moved me was The Shot. Not any one single instance of The Shot, but The Shot as a whole; as it was repeated throughout the film until it transcended theme...
Jeanne is wide-eyed, wild-eyed, pupils contracted to points, tears brimming until they spill over her sculptural cheekbones. Her lips tremble. Her nostrils flare. She is caught halfway between abject terror and spiritual exaltation.
There is no background. There is no sound. There is no hairstyle or costume. There is only her face and the light on it, which foregoes the gloom that would seem necessary for the subject matter in favour of bright, soft, natural-looking light.
At first I was cynical towards the image. Falconetti's exaggerated stare and on-demand tears did not move me. I cannot pinpoint the moment when she began to matter, when the performance dissolved and I began to feel a sense of rage that these men could do this political thing under the pretense of religion, and harm this poor child in the process. How could they not take pity on her?
And yet as pathetic as she is, she is not weak. She stares them all down without bitterness or anger. Perhaps this is why they are able to burn her; her quiet, true faith exposes the lie of their pompous bluster.
Its a bit hard to single out a single shot since as others have already mentioned most are similar close-up shots. The shot that I decided on is when one of the judges is angry at a comment Joan made and is right next to her screaming at her. He is screaming so hard that spit is launched onto her face. She doesn't seem to notice, or is in too much shock, and keeps staring forward.
She seems very haunted and in a state of shock through-out the entire movie signifying that she has gone through a lot prior to the trial. She is just barely able to function and while trying to stay strong she shows a lot of weakness such as fainting in the torture room and signing the paper and regretting it after.
There was one shot that really caught my eye. It was the scene where the judges were in the cell with Joan and one of the priest just covered the shadow of the cross that was from the window frame. Which of course an indication that this priest is not to be trusted but this was not the reason that caught my senses. It was the fly that landed on Joan's face that really got me thinking. Why is their a fly on her face? What was the director trying to say? It made me think a lot about it. The fly could be a symbol of something? I think it was amazing close-up shot with the actual real fly moving about. Joan bushes away after a few seconds it had landed and flew off. Well it made Joan's physical presence seem like a dead corpse because flies are usually around rotting things like garbage and the dead. It gives a sign she is going to die because of the fly landing on her face.
Since this film is a series of close up shot, it's hard for me to pick one favorite shot, every close up shot of Joan is very emotional and very touching,she is so skinny and weak, but you can feel that his sprit is stronger than ever, however there is one shot I found is more interesting than the others, it's when Joan just got her hair cut,and sitting there aganist the white wall with a cross one the wall,in this shot only Joan's head is shown and it only last for 2 seconds,but somehow i found this shot very shocking, beautiful composition, very good use of white space
"The Passion of Joan of Arc" had one shot that struck me. The still close up of Joan. This shot was of Joan sitting on her cot after the guard put the 'crown' on Joan then gave her the arrow. The way the props were placed/hung around Joan gave the impression of a shabby empress, which is really what the director was going for. I drew the parallel between Joan and Jesus. Both wore a crown of thorns. Most importantly they were both murdered for their religious believes by their own religious kin. (Joan by the christains, and Jesus by the Jews). Anyways the crown of thorns and sceptre like arrow shot of Joan was the pinnacle of the movie for me. At that point the viewer is aware that Joan will die, but become a martyr in doing so.
Andrew Kleysen
This entire film was so amazing. I have found myself thinking about it a lot since we watched it. I loved how the actors didn't wear any make up, I wish more films today were like that. There were many shots that I liked, but the ones that really got me into the film were towards the beginning of the trial. The close-ups of Joan were breathtaking. Her skin was so naturally beautiful and the way it was lit highlighted that very much. It was almost as though it was flickering between a normal view and having her cheeks, chin and forehead overexposed in the light. With her eyes closed and tears streaming down her face, these intense close-ups really convey what she is feeling.
I found that throughout the film we never knew exactly what was going to happen..she is going to be tortured..she's not. She's going to be executed then she isn't. In almost all the shots in between Joan is crying and looking so understandably miserably. We wonder what will happen when it has already told us from the very beginning that the trial ends in her death.
The shot that moved me in this film is found about half way through , it is during the questioning of Joan where she is being bombarded with questions concerning who she is. The shot is a pan shot with the judges and priests, it goes across the screen showing the emotions that Joan is bringing out in these men. There anger builds up with each question Joan is asked, and which each response that they find unacceptable. I think it showed how much power Joan truly had over this community including the ones who did not believe she was sent by god.
"The passion of joan of Arc" is a seiries of close-up shots and it is really hard to find a shot specificly standing out from it.
I like all the close-up shots of Joan's face. It explictly dipictes Joan's emotional changes with the story.
One of my favourate shot happens at the end of the movie. It is a close-up shot of a cross on the bottom left of the frame and the wood column cap where Joan's is being executed at the bottom right of the frame. They divide the picture into two symmtry parts. It represents Joan's righteous and it also shows light and dark, good and evil, God and Satan. This is a perfect shot for the ending.
The shot that moved me would be the part of the trial. That shot moved me so much because of the facial expression of Joan was simply remarkable. This shot was just against a white background with her face close-up. I think this shot is an important one because there are no other things inside this shot it's just between her and the priests. The scene touches us with their facial expressions because this was a silent film and there are no spoken dialogues.
For me, anyone of the close-ups of Joan in the movie could constituent a favorite shot. What made these shots work was the expressiveness of Falconetti's face. Her wide eye's clearly broadcasting a gamut of emotions in this film. The high-angle shots of her face were used to show her powerlessness in the face of her accusers. While the eye level shots I felt were used to elicit the viewers sympathy.
I also found the shot of the shadow of Joan's cell windows on the floor while she was praying to be interesting. As the shadow forms the shape of a cross, Joan takes this as a sign that God has not abandoned her. When the judge enter her cell and blocks out the shadow making it disappear from the frame, I took this as an indication that either there was a lack of divine guidance, so to speak, in the judges actions; or that indeed God had abandoned Joan.
I've known Joan of Arc as a woman who became heroine of France, after leading French army to several important victories during the Hundred year's war. After confessing that she had visions from God, telling what would happen, and what she needed to do, she was condemned as a witch, and because of that was burned at the stake, at the early age of nineteen.
We see only part of these facts on the movie. We never got to see the Frech Heroine, who led France to victories.
There was this one shot,though, that I really liked, because it showed a stronger Joan, removed of all her tears. After the Priest judge tells her she can only attend the Church Mass if she dresses up as a woman , she kind of gets a burst of anger and she shouts to the judges:
'You claim that I'm sent from the Devil, but to torture me the devil sent you, and you, and you, and you....'
She spins around, pointing at her aggressors. That was the only shot that I caught a glimpse of the French Heroine that moved so many people.
Honestly, the entire film moved me. There was so much emotion, continuous emotion. Along side with an amazing orchestra to feed the mood of the story, this film was absolutely brilliant. There were many shots in this film that moved me, one in particular being when the one priest/judge stood up and said, "for me, she is a saint" , as if he actually beileved Joan. You got a hint of hope for her and her mission. I enjoyed the facial close-ups because you could follow the story much more closely and with the intense fast moving shots as well as the immense soundtrack this film can literally knock you to the ground. I enjoyed how piercing Joan's eyes were, they did quite a lot in telling the story and getting the true tragedy across to the audience. It was an amazing film.
The shot that "moved me" in Carl Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" would be close to the end. I believe its one of the few non close-up shots there were in the film although the screen does shade in looking more like the shape of and eye (iris shot),which I think intensifies it even more . The shot was during Joan being burned we flash to the one priest (At least I think he was some sort of priest) holding the giant cross. Basically it moved me because it looked like he was dead. It wasn’t the fact of him looking dead though that moved me it was the fact I think that it symbolized a link between him and Joan. As Joan died he did to, he was the only one to believe in her from the start.
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