I just saw this movie, my fourth Bresson, last night for the first time. I've seen Dryer's at least three times; it may be over four (I also watched it again last night/earlier today, when TCM showed it right after the Bresson film).
First off, I just don't agree that Bresson's Joan lacked emotion at all. She didn't have to shout and throw her hands up in the air to show me she was just full of defiance, even arrogance. Her emotion (her whole characterization) was strikingly different than Dreyer's Joan, Dreyer's Joan showed her emotion in an arguably more blatant way, but I saw emotion spewing out of Bresson's left and right.
In a way, actually, Bresson's Joan was MORE emotional than Dreyer's. Bresson's showed real, human, "down-to-earth" emotions. As one other poster here pointed out, Dreyer's Joan maybe manic. What she displays strikes me as something other than, or beyond, human emotion. Something admittedly mysterious, but, for me, that was the point. Dreyer's film was all (or, well, largely) about an unclassifiable, unknowable space of being appearing right before our eyes: Does Joan truly believe she has been touched by God? HAS she truly been touched by God? Is Joan insane?
For me, Bresson and Falconetti purposely and pointedly refuse to tell us the answers to these questions. But something well beyond everyday human experience, for the maid, the commoner, or even the soldier at war, is clearly on display in Dreyer's Joan.
There's basically none of this in Bresson's Joan. The two character's are almost entirely different. Not just how the directors present them, but who and what they acutally are. Bresson's Joan struck me as largely, if not entirely, self-aware and calculating -- and, of course, there is absolutely none of THAT in Dreyer's Joan. Bresson's Joan is at war, while Dreyer's Joan is in some place I could never explain - but it's certainly not on the battlefield.
By the way, for me, Bresson's film (after one viewing, at least...) is a great film, but Dreyer's blows it out of the water. That's saying a lot!
Matthew
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