JOAN OF ARC AT THE STAKE

Joan of Arc is being burned alive for heresy. In a musical dream state, she departs from her body and begins to look back upon her life. She begins this journey in a demoralized state but a priest appears to help guide her, showing her the good that she has performed, to be ready to face the flames.

Having already played Joan of Arc in a Hollywood biopic, Ingrid Bergman returned to the role for an experimental fantasia by Roberto Rossellini. Filmed live at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, this operatic interpretation set the martyr’s final hours to music—some six decades before Bruno Dumont!