JOAN OF ARC
...pward as if she is personally conferring with the Lord. She sleeps with her hands folded in prayer. She never seems surprised to hear news about her plight. She always quietly nods, as if she already knew what was going to happen. She never denies that she is the Maid of Lorraine. Joan is very feminine in this film. She may dress as a man, but she is always well-groomed and clean. “Believe me, I’d rather be at home spinning with my mother, for this is not my proper place,” she says. Joan refuses to let the men in her army drink, curse, or womanize. In the Battle of Orlean, she does not wield a sword, but rather carries a flag and cheers on her army. The men she works with look massive next to her petite stature. One interesting thing about Bergman’s portrayal of Joan is that in that particular film, Joan never questions her mission. Although she is “only a poor girl and has never seen an army” she rides out with her men to fight for France. She sees men get killed, but continues to be a cheerleader for her cause. “Men of France, do not give up,” she screams over the sound of me dying on both sides of her at the Battle of Orlean. She states that she does not fear the enemy. She never doubts that her voices are from God. Joan is depicted as an unselfish martyr in this film. She is patient, kind, and caring. She wishes nothing more than to please God. She is saintly to the point of being inhuman. Joan doesn’t even cry out at her execution because she is too busy staring at the crucifix. This makes for an accurate, if boring, film. Joan of Arc is very true to the Joan that is described in papers and letters of the time. Joan was described as a “singularly pious child, grave beyond her years, who often knelt in the church absorbed in prayer and loved the poor tenderly.” She was skilled in spinning and sewing. She claimed that her words and deeds were all in God’s hands. There were some minor factual differences between the movie and the documents. In the movie, Joan offered to change into women’s clothes if she would be able to hear mass. In the trial transcript, however, Joan refuses the clothing because her voices have told her to, but begs to be allowed to go to mass regardless. Ingrid Bergman does not appear to be the “little girl of sixteen” tha...