An observation on a cinematic mastermind

 
The claim to a certain piousness is refuted. The actors are uttering the words from the actual transcript of her trial presuming, in that at least, someone applied some sense of exactitude.

By reputation, Carl Dreyer is, as his name suggests, a little dry and one expects him to treat his subjects seriously but I think he does the opposite. He has, in my opinion, an innate sense of the absurd, so such a fraught thing as St Joan's trial; a real event, is perfectly matched material for what he would do with moving images.

Her trial is absurd because of the nature of the charges. Bishop Cauchon is pro-English. He wants to prove that Joan is a witch, so the questioning is contorted to force her to sign a confession. It is typical of trials held in autocratic police states. What Dreyer adds, again in my opinion, is the necessarily comical side in 'representing' the absurd. The psychopathic nature of the clerical mob is made evident through a series of medium shots and close-ups showing crazed and demented facial expressions. So the drama avoids the central problem of replicative theatre - photographism. It is a sort of an anti-realist, anti-formalist sermon. There are shades of Kierkegaard in the theological implications of the scenes in a sort of a Danish inter-generational collaboration.

- Bevagna, 23 1 2017