Joan of Arc
Scene from a film
GermanDas Mädchen Johanna
Directed byGustav Ucicky
Written byGerhard Menzel
Produced byBruno Duday
Starring
CinematographyGünther Krampf
Edited byEduard von Borsody
Music byPeter Kreuder
Production
company
Distributed byUFA
Release date
  • 26 April 1935 (1935-04-26)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

Joan of Arc (German: Das Mädchen Johanna) is a 1935 German historical drama film directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Angela Salloker, Gustaf Gründgens and Heinrich George. It depicts the life of Joan of Arc, and is the first female embodiment of the Nazi Führer figure in film. The press in Germany and abroad detected direct parallels between the presentation of France in 1429 and the situation in Germany in 1935.[1]

It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig.

Cast

Reception

Writing for The Spectator in 1935, British writer Graham Greene[2] criticized the film for historical inaccuracies (like Joan's rescue of Charles VII at Orléans rather than meeting at Chinon), as well as for what he called its "Nazi psychology" (including the "heavily underlined" political parallels between the June 30 purge and that of Trémoille, and between the Reichstag fire and the execution of Joan in Rouen). Greene described the overall effect to be dull and noisy, and described the direction as "terribly sincere, conveying a kind of blond and shaven admiration for poor lonely dictators who have been forced to eliminate their allies."[3]

References

  1. ^ Fox, Jo (2000). Filming Women in the Third Reich. Berg. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-85973-391-2.
  2. ^ "The (Mis)Guided Dream of Graham Greene | Robert Royal". First Things. November 1999. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  3. ^ Greene, Graham (25 October 1935). "Joan of Arc/Turn of the Tide/Top Hat/She". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-19-281286-5.)

External links


Films directed by Gustav Ucicky
Joan of Arc
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