(Watched: thu/20230105 via the Criterion Channel. Directed by Carl Th. Dreyer from a screenplay by Joseph Delteil and Dreyer; starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti, Eugène Silvain, André Berley, and Maurice Schutz. Released April, 1928.)

While a lifelong devotee of Dreyer's VAMPYR, I hadn't seen THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC but within a few seconds, I understood why it's been hailed as one of the greatest films of all time since it came out: with a simple, sparse language of action/reaction and closeups punctuated by the occasional cinematic flourish, Dreyer’s telling of Joan's (Maria Falconetti, in one of the finest performances ever - I can't add anything to the nearly hundred years of praise other than Wow) martyrdom at the hands of the theocratic inquisition and its ignoble sycophants is nothing short of a triumph of brutal and uncompromising depth. This one's going to stick with me for awhile.