This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from the 2K high-resolution restoration by Gaumont from the Danish Film Institute’s duplicate 35mm preservation negative of the Oslo version of the film and is presented at 24 frames per second (fps) and at 20 fps. The picture has been stablized and digital restoration has removed dust, speckling and any minor print damage. The results are stunning — with a caveat. As any still frame from the disc will reveal, the digital scan renders a picture with over-emphasized film grain that appears as a fine swarm of black dots rather than as continuous greytones. This is a common rap we have on most home video editions of silent films presented on Blu-ray Disc. We feel that, despite the inevitable presence of film grain in vintage film prints, the goal should be to present the image of a silent era film as close as possible to a projected picture, with as much continuous greytone information as can be rendered from the source material. For this reason, we sometimes prefer viewing the 2012 Eureka Entertainment Blu-ray Disc edition, although its image detail appears a little bit smeary. (If you are technically savvy, some of the black-dot issue can be mitigated by adjusting the sharpness control of your HD monitor to a slightly softer focus to attempt to achieve a more filmlike image. If your monitor will allow, these settings could be saved for silent film viewing and the standard settings used for viewing the ultra-sharp images of contemporary films presented on 4K UHD discs.)

The film is presented with three music scores: Richard Einhorn’s oratorio “Voices of Light”, a choral and orchestral work (24 fps version); another by Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory and Portishead’s Adrian Utley (24 fps version); and the third composed and performed by pianist Mie Yanashita (20 fps version). There is an option to view the film without any musical accompaniment (both versions). Originally presented in their 1999 DVD edition, Criterion producers have chosen the oratorio entitled “Voices of Light” by composer Richard Einhorn as the primary musical accompaniment to the film. The classical music work was inspired by the Dreyer film and thus became a logical choice for an accompanying music score. The performance by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Choir, with vocal performances by classical quartet Anonymous 4 and soloist Susan Narucki is highlighted by the use of Anonymous 4 for the ‘voice’ of Joan in the music. Of note is Einhorn’s inclusion of his personal recording of the church bell at Domremy, France — home village of Joan of Arc — in the recording of his composition. A short supplementary documentary on the composition and its pairing with the film for this home video edition has been included. The Gregory-Utley score is certainly interesting and appealing but is far overshadowed by the Einhorn score performance when viewing the 24 fps version. The Yanashita piano score is pleasing and perhaps best conveys, among the scores available on home video, the somber tone of the film.

The supplementary material includes an alternate presentation of the film at 20 fps, with the original Danish intertitles; new video-based French language intertitles with optional new English subtitles are available in the 24 fps version; the 1999 audio commentary by film scholar Casper Tybjerg (24 fps version); a new video interview with Einhorn (11 minutes); a new conversation between musicians Will Gregory and Adrian Utley regarding their score (15 minutes); a new video essay by Casper Tybjerg exploring the debate over the film’s frame rate (12 minutes); an audio interview from 1995 with actor Renée Falconetti’s daughter and biographer, Hélène Falconetti (9 minutes); a film version history (10 minutes); a production design archive presentation of still photographs (4 minutes); and a 42-page insert booklet with photographs and frame enlargements, an essay by critic Mark Le Fanu, a 1929 director’s statement by Carl Theodor Dreyer, and the full libretto for “Voices of Light.”

With no reservations, we highly recommend this home video edition of the film as the best Region A Blu-ray Disc edition available.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

The film is presented with three music scores: Richard Einhorn’s oratorio “Voices of Light”, a choral and orchestral work (24 fps version); another by Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory and Portishead’s Adrian Utley (24 fps version); and the third composed and performed by pianist Mie Yanashita (20 fps version). There is an option to view the film without any musical accompaniment (both versions). Originally presented in their 1999 DVD edition, Criterion producers have chosen the oratorio entitled “Voices of Light” by composer Richard Einhorn as the primary musical accompaniment to the film. The classical music work was inspired by the Dreyer film and thus became a logical choice for an accompanying music score. The performance by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Choir, with vocal performances by classical quartet Anonymous 4 and soloist Susan Narucki is highlighted by the use of Anonymous 4 for the ‘voice’ of Joan in the music. Of note is Einhorn’s inclusion of his personal recording of the church bell at Domremy, France — home village of Joan of Arc — in the recording of his composition. A short supplementary documentary on the composition and its pairing with the film for this home video edition has been included. The Gregory-Utley score is certainly interesting and appealing but is far overshadowed by the Einhorn score performance when viewing the 24 fps version. The Yanashita piano score is pleasing and perhaps best conveys, among the scores available on home video, the somber tone of the film.

The supplementary material includes an alternate presentation of the film at 20 fps, with the original Danish intertitles; new video-based French language intertitles with optional new English subtitles are available in the 24 fps version; the 1999 audio commentary by film scholar Casper Tybjerg (24 fps version); a new video interview with Einhorn (11 minutes); a new conversation between musicians Will Gregory and Adrian Utley regarding their score (15 minutes); a new video essay by Casper Tybjerg exploring the debate over the film’s frame rate (12 minutes); an audio interview from 1995 with actor Renée Falconetti’s daughter and biographer, Hélène Falconetti (9 minutes); a film version history (10 minutes); a production design archive presentation of still photographs (4 minutes); and a 42-page insert booklet with photographs and frame enlargements, an essay by critic Mark Le Fanu, a 1929 director’s statement by Carl Theodor Dreyer, and the full libretto for “Voices of Light.”

We have not viewed this DVD edition but, based on the high quality of its Blu-ray Disc sister edition (noted above), we highly recommend this as the best available DVD home video edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

This high-quality DVD edition has been mastered from the La Cinémathèque française restoration print that was completed in 1985. The Danske Filmmuseum in Copenhagen provided the complete but slightly worn 35mm positive print to La Cinémathèque française for restoration in the mid-1980s. The surviving footage, a version of director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s original cut, well represents the original quality and visual intent of the film. The Danish intertitles of the source print were translated into French by Maurice Drouzy, presumably consulting contemporary sources. The restoration results, supervised by La Cinémathèque française’s Vincent Pinel, are nothing short of spectacular.

For this edition of The Passion of Joan of Arc, additional digital clean-up of the video transfer, from the Cinémathèque française restoration print was performed to remove dust, scratches, visible splices, chemical spotting, etc. A few shots still reveal the fine patina of scuffing that lightly mars the highlights of the original print. As we have said, the original Danish print held a broad range of greytones and fantastic detail that is retained in this quality video transfer which, in its generous full-frame framing, is stunning — even though it could have benefitted from a higher average video bit rate and less MPEG-2 compression, which would have rendered an even smoother, more filmlike picture on HD monitors.

The supplementary materials include a valuable audio commentary by Casper Tybjerg, notes on the accompanying Einhorn music, interactive essay, multimedia history of the film’s variant editions, and a section on the digital restoration which notes that, in all, 20,320 individual print flaws were digitally removed from the transfer.

Still a great-looking disc but, we now recommend Criterion’s updated and remastered DVD home video edition (noted above).

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

We have no indication as to what kind of musical accompaniment is presented with the film.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

We have no indication as to what kind of musical accompaniment is presented with the film.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports the Silent Era website.

Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.

Other RELIGIOUS FILMS of the silent era available on home video.