I often imagine a kind of hermeneutics of tears, which can solve the mystery of the origin of tears and enumerate all possible interpretations. What will we get from it? Then we will know all the highest points of history without paying attention to "events", because we will know how many times human beings have surpassed themselves in the long river of history. The hermeneutics of tears shows us the path from trance to excommunication. ——Xiao Hang: "Tears and Saints"
1.
The script of the film was compiled based on the trial records of Joan of Arc kept in the Rouen Museum (?), and described the whole process of the trial and execution of Joan of Arc by the Inquisition under the control of the English authorities at that time. The actors performed well in performances and photography, with close-ups of a large number of people's faces, successfully portraying the character of Joan of Arc and the portrait of priests. As Dreyer’s last and best silent film ("Female Vampire" should be regarded as a sound film), although as George Sadul said and Dreyer regretted it, it was limited by technical limitations. Subtitles must be used for the key and numerous dialogues, which greatly affected the rhythm of the film, but still did not affect the important position of the film in the history of film.
2.
Dreyer's Joan is completely different from personally imagined Joan of Arc. Dreyer's Joan of Arc is fragile, strong, frightened, helpless, and piety, and shows extraordinary endowments in the question of faith. In other respects, she is an ordinary girl with a pure judgment on things and an attachment to life.
Dreyer has a strong Christian faith, which can be felt from the mysticism in his other films. He still has some warmth towards priests—the political puppets who insisted on killing Joan according to historical records—in his description, they are ugly, but after all, they still have a little sense of honor in defending their religious beliefs. Therefore, the dramatic conflict of the film gently bypasses a medieval conspiracy and turns its stage into the inner conflict of Joan of Arc. From this point, Dreyer's Joan of Arc is too different from personal historical imagination, which can be explained.
At the same time, this treatment does not affect at all, but in a sense strengthens the historical narrative of Joan of Arc as a pioneer of the modern French nationalist movement; Joan of Arc as an ordinary French citizen and Joan of Arc as a saint are effective in inspiring a sense of national pride. There are different inspiring meanings in context generation, especially when the boundary between the two is not so clear, it also provides political convenience.
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