Carl Theodor Dreyer’s film traces the trial and execution of Joan of Arc, condensing the timeline of events from eighteen months to a single day. Characterized by stark sets and extreme close-up photography of actors without makeup, The Passion of Joan of Arc emphasizes the raw emotion of its actors—notably, Renée Falconetti in the lead role—through its austere cinematography. While shooting the film, Dreyer wrote that he was “searching for nothing but life,” underscoring that it was the “objective drama of the spirit that is important, not the objective drama of the images.”