Joan the Woman

One of those silent films that exists almost as a Monty Python sketch about the worst impulses of silent films. The first five minutes are intertitles; jokes are made all the more hilarious at the expense of women; destiny is revealed in lightshows; acting is performed entirely in "double dream hands". And is this modern-day French soldier a reincarnation of Joan of Arc? That's some swinging liberalism.

The background story is unnecessary. The main part is ok, but it fails to deliver the fascination Joan of Arc.

Love the visuals in this movie - very artistically done. At first the love interest with the English soldier seemed strange, but made sense after realizing England and France were fighting alongside each other then in WWI. While not the most accurate portrayal of St. Joan's life, it's a very interesting and entertaining one, especially when you consider (or maybe partly because) it's a silent from the earliest years of feature film.

An early DeMille foray into the oversized period epic territory his later years would become synonymous with. It often comes off as stagey and underwhelming next to his features with a more focused scale from around this year, though when it gives him occasion to cut loose with a bit of that "Cast of Thousands" energy, it does hint at things to come. Geraldine Ferrar is fine, though "Carmen" from a couple years earlier was honestly the better showcase for both her and DeMille.