Joan of Arc

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?

In Europa,I've often heard people complaining .Why has the movie been boiled down to a digest of barely 100 min? In France,Joan's native country,it's a scandal!It was broadcast on the history channel yesterday and again in the "short" editing.It seems that many scenes were replaced by a voice over which is infuriating ,cause Fleming's version of "Joan Of Arc" ,although inferior to Preminger's and Dreyer's works, is quite interesting.

Although too old for the part,Ingrid Bergman had enough charisma to make you forget that Joan was 17 when her epic began.Fleming's style is far away from Dreyer's bare aestheticism or Luc Besson's video game battles.Holy picture best describes his way of filming Joan,which makes sense ,cause it begins with the heroine's canonization (only in 1920!).

Good things:La Tremouille's bad influence on the king;Joan who did not realize in 1430 that fighting had been replaced by negotiations;the abjuration: in Rouen,you can see a commemorative plaque which reads "Here ,in 1431, Joan of Arc suffered the infamous ordeal of abjuration" .On the "Place du Vieux Marché" ,where she was burnt alive,another plaque reads "To you,Joan,who knew that a hero's grave was the heart of the living." (André Malraux)

The difference between the butchered 100 minute release of Victor Fleming's final film, JOAN OF ARC and the original 146 minute version is like night and day! UCLA has worked on restoring this film to its uncut form for some 10 years -- the results can now be seen with the May 2004 release on DVD by Image-Entertainment. My opinion of the film has greatly changed for the better. For some years I have had access to the 100 minute cut on a nice Laser Disc copy. Seeing the new DVD is a revelation. Not only is the Technicolor splendor of the original on the DVD, but the film as conceived by Victor Fleming is 100% better in its restored form. Ingrid Bergman may be a bit old to play the part, but she is quite marvelous as is Jose Ferrer as the Dolphin, in this his first film appearance. If you have any interest in this film and have only seen it in its butchered form, then do yourself a favor and take a look at the DVD. In this form it can take its place along side Victor Fleming's two most famous films, GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ.

I am lucky enough to have a video of the uncut version of this film, in which the trial is shown in full. This is the part of the film in which we see Ingrid's best acting. It's so immensely moving! Ingrid believed in Joan and it shows. She had just come from a triumphant Broadway run in Joan of Lorraine, the play on which this movie is based. The movie is a more straightforward telling of Joan's story [the play is a play within a play] and I would say it's accurate, though some details have to be left out, due to lack of time. Sadly, Ingrid's popularity in the USA had waned when this film was released. What a tragedy! I am amazed that a so-called enlightened and free nation could turn against this honest woman, because of her love for an Italian film director and the birth [out of wedlock] of their beautiful son. I think Ingrid would have won another Oscar with "Joan of Arc", had it not been for the "scandal". It's definitely the best film version of this remarkable saint's story and a fulfilment of Ingrid's lifetime wish. Long live Ingrid Bergman - and her favourite saint! Mary Hutchings [Founder, Ingrid Bergman International, Yahoo clubs]

This Ingrid Bergman film was so under-rated. She put her heart and soul into acting the part of her great heroine and then the film was not only slated at the box office but horrendously cut when issued for television and on video. WHY?????? We know it didn't do well at the box office, because of the circumstances of Ingrid's private life in 1949 and 1950 - sadly, Hollywood and the whole world judged this lovely lady and they shouldn't judge anyone, ever!!! Miss Bergman was a lady and a great actress. But why was the film cut for video? The cut version, with silly voice overs and maps, is not one iota as good as the full version, where we see the young Joan and her experiences of her voices and also have a fuller version of the trial - where her acting is nothing short of brilliant. I hope someone who is able to influence the issuing of the entire film on DVD reads this comment! Mary