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Cast: Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich, Faye Dunaway, Dustin Hoffman, Pascal Greggory, Vincent Cassel, Tchˇky Karyo, Richard Ridings, Desmond Harrington, Timothy West
Director: Luc Besson
Producer: Patrice Ledoux
Screenplay: Luc Besson, Andrew Birkin
Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast
Music: Eric Serra
UK Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Luc Besson's vivid take on this legendary story was denied a huge release in the UK and it's not hard to see why.
As a devoted Besson fan, it's heartbreaking to see the French director rejecting the charm that made Leon and Nikita such international hits.
The fact that it paints the English as a bunch of one dimensional rapists, neanderthals and 15th-century lager louts also finds little favour with the UK masses.
We open in 1420 with the young French girl who needs to confess every day and sees visions of Christ sat in a stone chair.
That eventually segues into the motivation behind her hatred for the English - a particularly brutal rape scene in which her sister is killed by a Pythonesque English soldier and young Jeanne is turned into a crazed visionary.
Or is she?
Jeanne could have been a schizophrenic according to Besson and co-screenwriter Andrew Birkin (who also penned the 1975 Slade classic, Flame.)
The young heroine is sent to live with an aunt and uncle while her folks try to rebuild their home. When next we meet Jeanne, she is 17 and is seeking an audience with France's uncrowned king, Charles VII.
(The scene of a mysterious hooded figure arriving at a palace or castle was a little too close to Return of the Jedi for comfort.)
Charles is so impressed by Jeanne, he believes her claim that God has chosen her to "save France from Her enemies and bring Her back into the hand of God."
Furnished with an army, he lets her attack the English at Orleans, where she wins a fine victory. Well, as fine as any victory can be in war.
She becomes an immediate French folk hero, and is at Charles VII's side when he is crowned in July of 1429.
However, the victory soon turns sour when her ongoing fight is not backed by the King.
The English, seeking revenge, manage to get her tried for heresy and there is a lengthy trial in which her faith is brought into question - thanks to a delicious performance from Dustin Hoffman as the Devil (or The Conscience).
Milla Jovovich was pretty good as the eponymous heroine, although her attempts at a Braveheart/Henry V-style rally call lacked a little something.
When she calls her men to arms, there follows a feverish reaction that doesn't really work.
This girl would have trouble getting served down the boozer on a Saturday night let alone marshal the forces of a French army.
She looks great and is around the right age to make this work but Milla lacks the depth to carry such a huge movie.
John Malkovich was curiously cast as the King of France, Charles VII - obviously included to sell it to a US audience as was Faye Dunaway (as mother-in-law, Yolande D'Aragon) looked like a refugee from Dune (complete with big blue vein in her forehead).
Only lovely old Timothy West was believable as Jean Cauchon, a Church VIP or the head of an ecclesiastical tribunal if you want the technical version.
I do love Luc Besson movies and this is very good but he always works best on little films like Leon rather than big epics like this or Fifth Element.
© 2000 Roger Crow
