Joan of Arc: A Portrait of a Legend [VHS Tape]

Description

The story of JOAN OF ARC is akin to what BRAVEHEART is to modern audiences, but in this case, in relation to France vs. England. Ingrid Bergman portrays “Joan of Arc”, the deathless heroine of France. In 1428, France and England had been at war for nearly a century. In a small village in Lorraine, a young peasant girl is inspired to drive the enemy from France and crown the Dauphin in Rheim’ cathedral. Pressing her ambition, she leads an army of believers to numerous victories on the battlefield. But a counterplot is at work as a sordid truce is signed with the English, frustrating Joan’s zeal to rid France of the enemy. In an ironic twist of fate, she becomes a political prisoner and is tried as a witch by an ecclesiastical court. Browbeaten into a confession of heresay, she is turned over to the English and burned to death. Under the direction of Victor Fleming (whose credits include Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz), this is a respectable mini-epic, adapted from Maxwell Anderson’s acclaimed play Joan of Lorraine and giving 33-year-old Ingrid Bergman one of her quirkiest star turns as the 19-year-old “Maid of Lorraine,” destined by divinely inspired fate to rescue imperiled France from British occupation, and face trial on charges of witchcraft. Winner of three Oscars (for cinematography and costumes, and an honorary award to Producer Walter Wanger for boosting Hollywood’s “moral stature”) and five nominations (including acting nods for Bergman and Jos? Ferrer, making his screen debut as the French Dauphin), the film suffers from an abundance of talky exposition and stage-bound incident, but the battle scenes are still rousing, Bergman glowing beatifically in polished armor and surrounded by a seasoned cast of studio-era character players in a rampant case of Hollywood anachronism (somehow, Ward Bond just doesn’t belong in medieval France!).