1916 film englands joan of arc biography

Cecil B. Joan the Woman follows the popular story of Joan of Arc, portrayed here by Geraldine Ferrar , from her departure from Domremy to her arrival at the court of Charles VII of France , where she convinces the dauphin to put her at the head of an army to oust the English from France. Her subsequent victory at Orleans comprises roughly twenty minutes of the two-and-a-half hour film.

Joan is captured at Compiegne only because of the betrayal of her English suitor, Eric Trent. Joan is led to her inevitable death at the stake in Rouen. English soldiers keep watch over the parapets for any signs of a German attack, though as the audience is introduced to the story all is fairly quiet. Here, Eric Trent has supposedly been reincarnated as an English officer.

Moments later, the armored apparition of Joan of Arc appears behind him to inform him that the time has come to expiate his sins against her. His mission is a success, and as he lays dying Joan once more appears and all is seemingly forgiven. While the film was met with generally positive reviews, it was a box office disappointment.

Joan of arc hair color

The Birth of a Nation emboldened fledgling studios to invest great amounts of capital into large film productions; audiences were willing to sit through multi-hour historical epics. The film seemingly appealed to mostly those of the upper or middle classes. Without question, the inclusion of Trent is the most egregious departure from the story of the historical Joan.

The first is that Trent mitigated the blow to not-quite-dead Victorian sensibilities of having a woman lead men into battle. As a matter of fact, DeMille makes it quite clear that his Joan is shaming men into fighting for France by directly challenging their masculinity. The second reason is the First World War.