The movie depicts Joan's "voices" as a single voice. This voice comes directly from God himself. When Joan is giving her sign to King Charles VII in the movie, she describes the voices coming to her as a strange, violent wind. She also makes no mention of saints in the film and only recalls her interaction with God. The scene where Joan tells King Charles this information is one of mystery also because no one knows what Joan and King Charles talked about in that time they were together. Therefore any movie scene made depicting this is purely speculation.
In the primary sources, Joan describes her voices as those of Sts Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. She explained that the saints were delivering God's message to her. Where the film says God himself was directly speaking to her, Joan herself said otherwise. The other interesting thing I noticed about the film was its portrayal of God. Throughout the film, God always appears as the same age as Joan. I suppose the writer made it this way to make a statement saying "Joan's notion of God changed in her own mind as she aged." As the movie progresses, we see God almost questioning Joan, asking her what has she had done and seemingly reversing his involvement with her. This happening in the film seemed a little odd to me. It's as if the writer is proposing that Joan is starting to think differently now that the attack on Paris had failed and things seemed to be heading downhill. The writer almost seems to imply that God is in her head and nothing more.
What do you all think of how the movie handled her voices? Did they seem correctly represented to you or were they wrongfully portrayed?
Link to movie: http://watch32.com/movies-online/the-messenger-the-story-of-joan-of-arc-207361/full.html
Work Cited
The Messenger. Performed by Milla Jovovich. France: Columbia Tristar Home Video, 1999. Film.
Pernoud, Regine. Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses. New York: Stein and Day, 1966.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI too found it interesting that within the film, God is mentioned as the only voice Joan heard. Do you think Besson chose to ignore the other voices Joan supposedly heard to make the film resonate more? Meaning, does having Joan only hear the voice of God have more "connotation" to it than that of voices from saints?
Bethany,
ReplyDeleteWhat I take away from watching this movie is the writer doesn't want to focus on the voices of the saints. He wants to focus on what is going on in her head. I feel like he says without saying " Joan didn't really hear voices from angles and she was a little bit crazy." That is what I take away from it. As the movie goes on, God changes, almost mimicking her change in thought. God goes from calling her name to saying that Joan disobeyed his words.
Chris
I feel like the film was against not only Catholicism as suggested in the handout but against Christianity in general. I feel like at first it is "God's Will" and he wants to show that, but when things start to turn against Joan, she disobeyed him and that's why she was going to be punished so harshly.
ReplyDeleteChris, I think your last line is spot on. What is the larger message the film is suggesting? While some films are quite religious on Joan, is this one quite secular? Do you think it might represent the views of a secular France today? What does is suggest about Joan and religion? Is the film more 2014 than 1431? How do you think Joan would respond to the movie?
ReplyDeleteAlso, re voices, and more on this later: consider the myriad of expressions that Joan had about her voices. Consider the types of sources, and which ones provide which info. Is there is a difference between "hearing voices" and "following God or Counsel"? I'm still waiting for the statistical study that shows the # of times Joan refers to God, Counsel, the voice, the voices, Jesus, Mary, Charlemagne, St. Louis, Archangel Michel, and the saints. Aaron?