There’s interesting material in this, even if I don’t really think it all comes together satisfactorily. The idea of using the noir template to tell a mythical story, without really departing from the gumshoe roots of the noir is intriguing, and the way Lawrence shoots it to have the light of the unseen God often overwhelm the frame, rather than the dark, works. I’m just not really sure the film, for all its invocation of the nature of religion, has…

It speaks to how effective this film is that, almost 100 years later, Falconetti’s performance - and the intense use of close-ups by Dreyer to capture that performance- remains probably the most notable screen version of a historical figure as well known as Joan of Arc. It’s in that use of close-ups, particularly in how they highlight how Joan is looking up, and how Dreyer cuts in such a way to highlight the disconnect between Joan and her prosecutors that…

I am baffled by the overwhelmingly positive response to this film. 

The most common praise of this film seems to be that it recalls the exploitation films of the 70s. I don’t agree with that at all. Those films tended to be short, breezy afairs that were aware, on some level, of what they were. That doesn’t mean that some didn’t have greater thematic ambitions; they did. But those films, above all else, wanted to entertain. Brawl in Cell Block…

I was really coming into this with an open mind, as I think this is the type of film where there is a knee jerk dismissive response from certain film fans - especially given the omnipresent marketing campaign. But God did I dislike it. It’s bloated and meandering, with a hideous visual palette, all in service of delivering the audience Great Value Wizard of Oz. Of course, while it stops to point at all the iconography it wants the audience…