The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962) by Robert Bresson
Sunday, April 22, 1984, 8:00 pm
Robert Bresson: The Trial of Joan of Arc
Bresson’s recent L’Argent was shown to great acclaim at the 1983 New York Film Festival. This earlier film (made in 1962) incorporates Bresson’s austere Jansenist philosophy into the visual style of a master craftsman. Bresson’s is a universe separate from everyday life, one in which realism is transformed into a kind of patterned abstraction (Lancelot du Lac, Pickpocket).
“One would say that she (Joan) was a more perfect being than we are, more sensitive. She combines her five senses in a new way. She sees her voices. She convinces us of a world at the limit of our faculties. She penetrates into this supernatural world but she closes the door behind her.” — Robert Bresson