The Passion of Joan of Arc

The Passion of Joan of Arc is a 1928 French silent film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, dramatizing the trial and execution of Joan of Arc using the surviving transcripts of her actual 1431 trial as its basis, starring Renee Jeanne Falconetti in the central role. Dreyer built the film around extended close-ups of Falconetti's largely unadorned face, shot with unconventional angles and stark, near-abstract sets, a style unlike most silent film of its period. The original camera negative was destroyed in a fire and the film survived mainly through a damaged print discovered in a Norwegian mental institution in 1981; it is now widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, with Falconetti's performance singled out as among the finest in cinema history.