La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) by Marco de Gastyne with Simone Genevois, Jean Debucourt and Gaston Modot.
This big French epic has been overshawed by the Dreyer picture for years. It differs considerably from the Dreyer one as it shows Jeanne first as a shepherdess in Domrémy, then as the warrior and finally facing execution. It's covering her whole life while La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc concentrates on her prosecution and execution. The film was shot mostly on locations on many different areas of France. Several French fortified cities were used: Aigues Mortes, Carcassone and Le Mont-St-Michel. A young girl of 16, Simone Genevois plays the lead. She was inexperienced but managed to give a very moving and impressive performance throughout. She rides a horse and drives the men to conquer Orléans. Then during the prosecution, she replies earnestly to the vicious question of the bishops. Her terror as she is burned at the stake is almost tangible. The film makes the most of landscape, battle scenes (probably inspired by the recent Gance's Napoléon) and tries to offer as accurate as possible an account of the life of Jeanne. The other actors offer top-notch performances, from Gaston Modot as the nasty Gladstall to Jean Debucourt as the weak King Charles VII. The titles throughout the pictures are sometimes a bit nationalistic. Jeanne d'Arc was still a character that people fought over in those days. It is quite startling to notice that the film uses the same transcipt of Jeanne's prosecution as in the Dreyer film. But the treatment couldn't have been more different though the bishops and prosecutors are startlingly similar as they are obese and grotesque figures. Gastyne uses frequent long shots and put forward the location sets. This was a big epic picture made with a lot of extras and deserves to be better known. (a short clip is visible in Brownlow & Gill's Cinema Europe documentary)
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928) by Carl T. Dreyer with Renée Falconetti, Antonin Artaud.
What can I say that hasn't been written on this picture before? Well, first the Dane Dreyer faced some serious opposition in France by filming the 'myth' of Jeanne. His film uses from start to finish some giant close-ups of faces. Jeanne is a the focus of every scene with Falconetti's face being scrutinised constantly by the camera. All the prosecutors are always presented in low-angle shot as if to maximise Jeanne's terror in face of her judges. Falconetti was a pure theatre actress with experience and Dreyer used her brilliantly showing her humiliation in front of a jury who asks constantly twisted questions. As the title suggest, we are really witnessing a woman undergoing a 'religious' experience while the Gastyne picture just tried to be an historical epic. Dreyer's point of view on the story is the focal point of the movie. He never a single time shows the set in long shot. And it's truly effective. I have seen very few Dreyer pictures so far (Michael and Gertrud which I didn't enjoy much), but this one is certainly very special. I saw the Criterion version which seems to be recorded a bit too fast if you look at the actors' lips. Really amazing.
But the Gastyne picture is also worth a look if you have the chance. 
