Judging by the movie (and Bresson as a person) Jean d'Arc has obviously been a really inspirational person to Bresson. That's basically the constitutive problem with this picture. All of the humaine virtues that are most significant to him, are combined in this historical character: The willpower, the faith, the moral persistence...
The movie's an ode to a role model of his - a moral statement. There's nothing wrong with being political or making a statement, just as long as it's all part of the dramaturgical entirety, and not the dramaturgical entirety. Sadly, in this case, that's just what's happened.
The other main problem with the movie, is it's structure. All of the court dialogues - which concist about 90% of the whole picture - are reenactments of the inquisition, based on the actual found documents from the trials. There's very little dramatization, as the whole picture could be seen more as a documentary of these historical events, than a self-reliant piece of storytelling.
The storyline, nor the characters, do not develop due the course of the movie. There's very little aspects presented of the main character, and it leaves very little room for interpretation. Basically, what you see is what you get.
The movie's an ode to a role model of his - a moral statement. There's nothing wrong with being political or making a statement, just as long as it's all part of the dramaturgical entirety, and not the dramaturgical entirety. Sadly, in this case, that's just what's happened.
The other main problem with the movie, is it's structure. All of the court dialogues - which concist about 90% of the whole picture - are reenactments of the inquisition, based on the actual found documents from the trials. There's very little dramatization, as the whole picture could be seen more as a documentary of these historical events, than a self-reliant piece of storytelling.
The storyline, nor the characters, do not develop due the course of the movie. There's very little aspects presented of the main character, and it leaves very little room for interpretation. Basically, what you see is what you get.