Falconetti's saintly, wounded Joan

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Amazingly, there have been a few remakes of Carl Theodor Dreyer's passionate, powerful film, "The Passion of Joan of Arc." I say amazingly because I am hard pressed to think anyone could make a superior film or come up with a better actress than Maria Renee Falconetti as the tortured, wounded, saintly Joan. Ingrid Bergman was not bad but let's face it: Falconetti is reason enough to believe that saints do exist.

Dreyer's film begins with the inquisition of Joan at her trial after being captured. Essentially, she is a farm girl who becomes a warrior. She is questioned in regards to her faith and where it stems from and if she feels God put her in her place to save France or if she is the Devil's handiwork. The inquisitors include mostly judges and orthodox theologians who watch every word and gesture Joan makes with relish. They try to provoke her, and they foolishly think that an illiterate nineteen year-old would have little faith or much understanding of her actions. They are surprised by her responses to say the least.

When Joan is asked who taught her the Lord's prayer, she sheds tears at the remembrance of her mother. When asked the most difficult question, if she is in a state of grace, she responds that she does not know if she is, but she hopes God will grant her grace and salvation. This is naturally considered blasphemy by the judges.

The undying power of "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is Carl Dreyer's attentive direction and superbly mobile camera, showing endless tracking shots and exquisite close-ups. There are lots of canted angles and little sense of space, mainly because it is constricted by the use of several close-ups. Most of these close-ups are of the judges, often showing them as monstrous and ugly when questioning or spitting at poor Joan. There are of course many extreme close-ups of Joan, sometimes allowing for lots of headroom to accentuate the high ceiling of the cathedrals. This kind of composition is rightfully disorienting, and it works in conveying Joan's own subjective disorientation. The visual language is incredible considering the film was made back in 1928, and it further establishes Dreyer as a principal artist of the silent film era and beyond with classic films like "Vampyr" and "Day of Wrath."

Of course, the majority of the film's success belongs to Maria Renee Falconetti as St. Joan, who never made another film since. She invigorates the sympathetic and pained soul of the martyred Joan as fully as anyone can imagine. Falconetti shows the enlightenment, the emotional wounds, the startled eyes as if hinting that she had seen God, the flowing tears, the sly smiles, and the gradual acceptance of her fate. This Joan suffers greatly as we see her faint while she stares at a wheel of spikes, and at another point, she is bled with a needle to cure a fever.

"Passion of Joan of Arc" is one of the greatest films ever made, as passionate and soulful a portrait of a scorned woman as you can imagine. Falconetti's performance is one of the most enlightening, on par with Gulietta Massina's work in "La Strada" - two of the foremost performances of the 20th century. Having seen the film three times, I confess that the restoration of this print, which includes illuminating music by Richard Einhorn titled "Voices of Light," adds enormously to the crescendo of the tragic finale that seals the fate of St. Joan. This is as vivid and human as films get.

Singing the praises and the pain of love

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG aka LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG (1964)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Original review from 1996)

Catherine Deneuve is probably the most beautiful, attractive, mysterious blonde in cinema. In my opinion, her beauty is her magic and it draws enormous pathos and is unsurpassed in the history of film, even with the iconic, empathetic sexiness of Marilyn Monroe. I think part of her unmistakable beauty is her ability to play both weak and forlorn women in films such as "Repulsion" and "Belle De Jour," and strong, independent, callous women in films like "O Convento" and the lesbian vampire in "The Hunger." I have not seen all of Deneuve's films, but I doubt she's ever played such a vivacious, funny, charming woman who sings as she does in the seemingly riotous "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg."

In her film debut at the age of twenty, Deneuve plays the teenage Genevieve, a girl who works for her mother (Anne Vernon) at a small umbrella shop. Every day after work, Genevieve meets the local garage mechanic named Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) whom she is deeply in love with. Guy wants to marry her and whisk her away from her mother. There are complications, though. Her mother's shop is about to be closed down until a wealthy playboy, Roland Cassard (Marc Michel), offers to save it - of course, he is deeply smitten by Genevieve's beauty and falls in love with her. Her mother insists that she marry Cassard since Guy is out to be drafted to the army in Algeria for two years.

More complications ensue. Genevieve turns out to be pregnant. Since she only receives one letter from Guy, she accepts Cassard's marriage proposal, and his willingness to raise her child as their own. A few years later, Guy returns from the army only to discover that Genevieve has married, his mother is sickly, and her caretaker, Madeleine (Ellen Farmer), is in love with him.

Part of the charm of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is that director Jacques Demy has turned this highly romantic film into a musical in the strangest sense. Demy's screenplay is full of the usual romantic cliches and witticisms except they are not spoken by the actors, they are sung! The movie gets funnier and funnier as it proceeds with its noble, inventive idea - it is equally pleasurable to watch Deneuve singing her shouting matches with her mother. After a while, we forget the actors are singing as the film gets richer and more serious leading to an unexpectedly touching finale.

"The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" also has exquisitely designed cinematography where the interior walls, chairs, tables, staircases and lights consist of primarily bright colors such as pink, blue, green and red - this partly pays homage to Hollywood's musicals where bright colors seemed to seep in every frame, especially Vincent Minneli's musicals. This is also partly a device where we are aware that we're not seeing the real world, but a fictional and dreamlike one.

"The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is unlike any movie I have ever seen, and it is very similar to Woody Allen's recent "Everyone Says I Love You" where some of the characters sang at the most inappropriate moments, though they mostly sang famous songs of the 20's and 30's. In this case, the actors actually sing the dialogue. Jacques Demy's film has been recently restored because the original Eastman film stock was fading. The result is a film that's bright, vivid and frequently funny and hits all the right notes and some sad ones about how love does not conquer all. The film is a treasure to behold and an antidote to the sappy, robotic romantic comedies of the 90's. No treasure is greater though than the magical, youthful presence of Catherine Deneuve.