'Joan of Lorraine' had enjoyed great success on Broadway and was a triumph for both playwright Maxwell Anderson and star Ingrid Bergman. It was only natural that Miss Bergman should relish the chance of transferring her performance to the silver screen but the commercial requirements of Hollywood required Anderson and his collaborator Simon Holt to depart from the the play's original pared down 'then-and-now' concept and to present a straightforward treatment in the form of a lush, big-budget mini epic.
Our perception of certain films is often coloured by the reputation that precedes them and this one is no exception. Although disdained by critics and failing at the box office Victor Fleming's film is not nearly as bad as some would have us believe.
It boasts ravishing Technicolour cinematography by Joseph Valentine, fabulous art direction by Richard Day and a magnificent score by Hugo Friedhofer. As one would expect, the script is literate but one suspects too much so for the average film goer. Although it espouses the glory of France and the perfidy of Albion there is not a single French accent to be heard although the performances by British/American actors are uniformly excellent notably José Ferrer making his screen debut, Francis L. Sullivan, Cecil Kellaway, John Emery, Ward Bond and J. Carroll Naish. Unsurprisingly the film fared pretty well in France where it no doubt symbolised recent liberation from Nazi occupation.
Many have commented on Miss Bergman at thirty-three being too old for the part. Whereas it is true that Simone Genevois, Angela Salloker, Jean Seberg and Florence Delay were nearer Joan's actual age, Sandrine Bonnaire played the role at twenty-seven whilst Renée Falconetti whose portrayal is the template by which all others are judged, was a mere thirty-six! For this viewer at any rate Miss Bergman gets away with it here and her performance both touches the heart and engages our emotions which is all that really matters. It is probably best to draw a discreet veil over the lamentable 'Joan at the Stake' which she made for Rossellennui six years later.
This turned out to be Victor Fleming's swansong and although claiming it to be a 'disaster', he has succeeded here in combining pageantry and sensitivity, action and intimacy. He had last worked with Miss Bergman on 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' and he himself was something of a Jekyll and Hyde director if one thinks of his final film and the one that preceded it, 'Adventure'! Although his films are a mixed bag, Fleming is, in the words of Andrew Sarris, 'one of the few Metro directors who could occasionally make the lion roar.'
Our perception of certain films is often coloured by the reputation that precedes them and this one is no exception. Although disdained by critics and failing at the box office Victor Fleming's film is not nearly as bad as some would have us believe.
It boasts ravishing Technicolour cinematography by Joseph Valentine, fabulous art direction by Richard Day and a magnificent score by Hugo Friedhofer. As one would expect, the script is literate but one suspects too much so for the average film goer. Although it espouses the glory of France and the perfidy of Albion there is not a single French accent to be heard although the performances by British/American actors are uniformly excellent notably José Ferrer making his screen debut, Francis L. Sullivan, Cecil Kellaway, John Emery, Ward Bond and J. Carroll Naish. Unsurprisingly the film fared pretty well in France where it no doubt symbolised recent liberation from Nazi occupation.
Many have commented on Miss Bergman at thirty-three being too old for the part. Whereas it is true that Simone Genevois, Angela Salloker, Jean Seberg and Florence Delay were nearer Joan's actual age, Sandrine Bonnaire played the role at twenty-seven whilst Renée Falconetti whose portrayal is the template by which all others are judged, was a mere thirty-six! For this viewer at any rate Miss Bergman gets away with it here and her performance both touches the heart and engages our emotions which is all that really matters. It is probably best to draw a discreet veil over the lamentable 'Joan at the Stake' which she made for Rossellennui six years later.
This turned out to be Victor Fleming's swansong and although claiming it to be a 'disaster', he has succeeded here in combining pageantry and sensitivity, action and intimacy. He had last worked with Miss Bergman on 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' and he himself was something of a Jekyll and Hyde director if one thinks of his final film and the one that preceded it, 'Adventure'! Although his films are a mixed bag, Fleming is, in the words of Andrew Sarris, 'one of the few Metro directors who could occasionally make the lion roar.'