Yet More Comparisons

Before watching the first fifteen minutes of The Passion of Joan of Arc, I had never seen a silent film before. Not being able to rely on the words coming out of their mouths, facial expressions become much more important. I thought that the actress that played Joan of Arc in the movie had some really strange facial expressions. I understand that she was trying to portray someone who is being called on by God, but I still thought they were strange. Joan’s description in scene one of Saint Joan includes the words “eyes very wide apart and bulging.” Once I read that description, the actress’ portrayal became clearer and I thought about how there is always a purpose behind the decisions made in a movie.

On a different note, through our study of influential French women, I am continuously surprised by the similarities between them regardless of how far apart in time they lived. When a man asked Joan, “Why do you dress in men’s clothing?” I instantly remembered when Balsan asked Coco a similar question in Coco Before Chanel. It’s interesting to me because they both dressed like men but they had different yet very powerful reasons to do so. Joan of Arc had to dress in men’s clothing so she could fight in the war against the English, and Chanel did so because she wanted to change the way women were idealized to have to dress. Though Chanel is often credited for changing the way women dressed, Shaw says that Joan “was the pioneer of rational dressing for women.” They were technically both pioneers in the fashion world yet they lived more than 400 years apart.