Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Stephanie Schell
The 1948 version of Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman is an excellent movie, and is also pretty family-friendly. I admire Ingrid Bergman's great acting abilities. She can cry on cue, and shows great emotion at every moment she is focused on. Joan is a fourteen year old girl who is hearing voices from Heaven. She is supposed to lead God's Army against Orleans and crown the Dauphin, Charles VII, as King of France. She does succeed in conquering Orleans. When her army prepares to march against Paris, King Charles sells his country to England. Unfortunately, Joan is then arrested, sold, and subjected to horrible trials that are political, though she is accused of being a heretic and a witch. She was only doing the will of God.There were a couple of faults in this movie. For example, Joan's hair should have grown if she was really on trial for five months. Also, some of the Latin words during the coronation ceremony were mispronounced.The film elements were appropriately simple. The camera followed the action, which usually had Joan at the forefront. There was very little blood shown, and there was nothing too graphic, even when Joan was burned at the stake. Extreme closeups of Joan's face were effective in displaying her emotions. Wide shots were employed to show the action scenes. I liked that the movie was in color, as opposed to many movies made in the 1940s that were black and white.Watch this for a refreshing, holy, and inspiring film for the whole family to take in.
Alex da Silva
Joan of Arc (Ingrid Bergman) receives messages from God that she is going to lead France against the British and restore the throne to the Dauphin (Jose Ferrer). She starts out on her mission and she succeeds. However, subsequent events conspire against her and she finds herself imprisoned where she is pressurized to renounce her visions...The problem with the film is that it is very staged. People deliver their lines and then we move on to the next scene. Its as if they are going through what they need to do and say - its not realistically executed. The cast of characters also becomes confusing. Its difficult to follow who is on who's side as the film simultaneously bores you so that you are not really interested in following the story. Ingrid Bergman is annoying as she is way too humble and full of religious clap-trap. She also looks out of place in her suit of armour leading the troops - rather like a Cyberman. I spent the film wishing that it would finish.
gelman@attglobal.net
I don't find this an especially stirring version of the story of Joan of Arc. Shaw's play, seen on stage, is much more vivid (though talky, as are most Shavian works). But it has a young Ingrid Bergman as Joan and if you need to be reminded of how beautiful she was and what screen presence she possessed, you owe it to yourself to see this 1948 film. Jose Ferrer also appears in the movie in one of his early roles and numerous other name actors of the period are distributed among the characters. Considering that the script is by Maxwell Anderson, the dialog is surprising flat and uninspiring. Victor Fleming is the director but it is not clear to me what exactly he brought to the party. There's a fair amount of spectacle but it is vintage spectacle and in no way comparable to what could be (and is) done today, even in movies for TV. Ingrid Bergman's persona is all that makes this film believable in any way. She almost carries it the distance. I once saw the Shaw play with a 19-year-old college kid as Saint Joan. That girl, like Bergman, made Saint Joan believable because she inhabited the role. Jean Seberg, a few years later, was Saint Joan in a film based on Shaw's play and she just didn't have what it takes. But Bergman did.
sendraguy
After what seems like gargantuan efforts to obtain the DVD and the necessary equipment I have finally managed to see the uncut version of Joan of Arc.I am thrilled with this new DVD and will add nothing further to the positive comments that have already been made. However I should like to pay particular tribute to the wonderful music of Hugo Friedhofer. Of course, for years I loved his score for 'The best years of your life' but in terms of writing for an earlier period I never regarded this composer is quite the same league as, say, William Walton, whose Shakespeare/ Olivier scores were so memorable. But I have been forced to revise my opinion.It was Max Reger who commented to the English composer Vaughan Williams: 'you have a veritable obsession with the flattened seventh' Well so, it seems does Mr Friedhofer! I suppose one either likes or loathes pastiche and modal writing. I adore it, and think that in Joan of Arc we get the best of both worlds. The music has a direct and powerful emotional appeal. It could scarcely fail to have. Yet given the fact that Friedhofer uses C20th conventions, harmonies, instruments and musicians, his 'nods' in the direction of C15th French church music are tastefully enough done for us to feel that such scenes as the coronation are, if not exactly in any sense 'authentic' then still marvellously effective.I should dearly love to know whether anyone has arranged the score into a suite of pieces and recorded it. That would be a rare treat. Perhaps some other readers can advise?
