Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £4.99 a month
The Passion of Joan of Arc
An incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema, Carl Dreyer's deeply moving biopic features one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.
Biopic 1927 80 mins Silent
Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Overview
Carl Dreyer's deeply moving biopic features one of the most desperate, brilliant performances ever captured in cinema’s history. Actress Renée Falconetti, as the 19 year old Joan condemned to death, was brutally forced by Dreyer to kneel on stone to show the pain on her face. Few films since have used close-ups as intensely and overwhelmingly.
The Passion of Joan of Arc remains an unassailable giant of early cinema, a transcendental film comprising tears, fire and madness that relies on extreme close-ups of the human face. Renée Falconetti was 35 when she played the role of Joan (a teenager when condemned to death in 1431). Dreyer brutally extracted a desperate, brilliant performance from the actress, forcing her to kneel on stone to show the pain on her face and insisting that they shot in silence. In the 2012 Sight and Sound poll, Joan had risen to no. 9. But in 2010 it was designated the most influential film of all time in the Toronto International Film Festival’s ‘Essential 100’ list, where Jonathan Rosenbaum described it as “the pinnacle of silent cinema – and perhaps of the cinema itself”.
Contains mild violenceRelated
Biopic
Tom of Finland Tom of Finland
Biopic 2017 116 mins Director: Dome Karukoski
The story of a gay icon is brought to life in Dome Karukoski’s handsome biopic of Touko Laaksonen, the artist whose homoerotic drawings gave visual expression to a growing gay culture.
Reaching for the Moon Reaching for the Moon
Biopic 2013 114 mins Director: Bruno Barreto
Beautifully told true story of the love affair between American poet Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian architect Lola de Macedo Soares.
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Biopic 1998 87 mins Director: John Maybury
Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig star as artist Francis Bacon and his muse George Dyer in John Maybury’s darkly exquisite biopic.
Distant Voices, Still Lives Distant Voices, Still Lives
Biopic 1988 84 mins Director: Terence Davies
Terence Davies' debut feature is a remarkable evocation of working-class family life in the 40s and 50s and a visionary exploration of memory.
The Colour of Pomegranates The Colour of Pomegranates
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1968 80 mins Director: Sergei Paradjanov
The film that Martin Scorsese compared to ‘opening a door and walking into another dimension, where time has stopped and beauty has been unleashed’.
Letters from Baghdad Letters from Baghdad
Documentary 2016 91 mins Director: Sabine Krayenbühl
Tilda Swinton narrates the extraordinary journey of Gertrude Bell, a singular woman who played a significant – often unrecognised – role in British imperial policy making in Iraq.
Kermode introduces
Lodger: A Story of the London Fog Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
Crime 1926 91 mins Silent Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Ivor Novello plays a strange lodger who may be behind a number of Jack the Ripper-style killings in Alfred Hitchcock’s silent thriller.
Unrelated Unrelated
Drama 2007 96 mins Director: Joanna Hogg
On a Tuscan break a fortysomething woman finds herself drawn to the company of a group of partying teens, including a young Tom Hiddleston (in one of his earliest roles).
For Those in Peril For Those in Peril
Drama 2013 92 mins Director: Paul Wright
An intense and mysterious drama about the lone survivor of a strange fishing accident who’s outcast and persecuted by his fellow villagers.
Distant Voices, Still Lives Distant Voices, Still Lives
Biopic 1988 84 mins Director: Terence Davies
Terence Davies' debut feature is a remarkable evocation of working-class family life in the 40s and 50s and a visionary exploration of memory.
Within Our Gates Within Our Gates
Drama 1919 74 mins Silent Director: Oscar Micheaux
Oscar Micheaux’s startling silent classic – the earliest surviving feature from an African-American director – presents a fascinating black counterpoint to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation.
My Brother the Devil My Brother the Devil
Drama 2012 107 mins Director: Sally El Hosaini
Sally El Hosaini's feature debut tells of the love and disenchantment of two British-Egyptian brothers. Gangs, drugs and sexuality come between them
Directed by Carl Th. Dreyer
Vampyr Vampyr
Horror 1932 73 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
The first sound-film by one of the greatest of all filmmakers, Carl Theodor Dreyer, is akin to a waking-dream; guiding the viewer on a trance-like journey between reality and the supernatural.
The Master of the House The Master of the House
Drama 1925 107 mins Silent Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s richly detailed tragicomedy of domestic manners is by turns funny, intensely emotional and deeply affecting.
Day of Wrath Day of Wrath
Period drama 1943 97 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Dark and powerful tale of love and betrayal, and a community gripped by an obsessive fear of witchcraft.
Gertrud Gertrud
Drama 1964 116 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s final masterpiece centres on a woman who rejects the compromise of her marriage and retreats into a serene isolation.
Ordet. Ordet.
Drama 1955 125 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s beautifully photographed tale explores the religious intolerance and familial tensions within a Danish farming family.
New
Glassland Glassland
Drama 2014 93 mins Director: Gerard Barrett
Toni Collette’s visceral performance as an alcoholic, dependent on her devoted son (Jack Reynor), anchors this powerful Irish drama.
Bait Bait
Drama 2018 89 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
Simmering tensions between locals and newcomers in a modern-day Cornish fishing village reach boiling point in this hugely acclaimed British independent film.
Man on Wire Man on Wire
Documentary 2007 94 mins Director: James Marsh
James Marsh's excellent, Oscar®-winning documentary account of the 'artistic crime of the decade'.
Twilight's Last Gleaming Twilight's Last Gleaming
Thriller 1977 144 mins Director: Robert Aldrich
Burt Lancaster stars as the Air Force general who seizes control of a nuclear stockpile to force the US President (Charles Durning) to tell the truth about the Vietnam war, in Robert Aldrich's thunderous political thriller.
White God White God
Drama 2014 121 mins Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Winner of the 2014 Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, a bold and visceral tale of canine uprising.
The White Reindeer The White Reindeer
Horror 1953 68 mins Director: Erik Blomberg
The wife of a reindeer herder acquires a potion to makes her an irresistible object of desire, but at a terrible cost, in this extraordinary vampiric fairy-tale set amongst the starkly beautiful fells of Finnish Lapland.