Part of the BAMcinématek series Bresson
Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
Directed by Robert Bresson
With Florence Carrez
(1962) 65 min, 35mm
On trial for heresy, the teenage Joan (played by nonprofessional actress Carrez, described by Melissa Anderson in The Village Voice as “one of the most perfect of the director's ‘models’”) defies church and state in the name of her unwavering faith. The apotheosis of his oft-described “austere” style, Bresson’s almost clinically stripped-down handling of the material—based on the original transcript of the trial—is the inverse of Dreyer’s more famous film, lending the inevitable conclusion a shattering resonance.
