Jeanne

The second episode, "Jeanne", directed by Jean Delannoy, enacts the story of Jeanne (Joan of Arc). Once more, the figure of destiny guides the audience by saying that contrary to Elisabeth, who chose resignation, Jeanne chose to intervene. Two texts overlap with the opening images, the epigraph "what the woman wants, God wants" (a famous French proverb) and the explanation that "deserted by her king and by her army, Jeanne experienced defeat in Paris." As the story of Joan of Arc is well-known, I will not summarize it here. Let me only highlight the last scene of the episode, when Jeanne leaves the hamlet where she had been living for a few days and where she performed the miracle of resuscitating a young boy for a few hours, thus enabling him to be baptized. The hostility of the women from the village is felt as she rides off on her horse, leading a group of soldiers, when one of the women shouts at the pack: "may the devil burn your guts and those of this virgin."  The line is rather meaningful, in that it stresses the isolation experienced by Jeanne, misunderstood by men and women alike: a virgin warrior who dresses like a man, an ambiguous identity that precluded her from belonging to either group (the fact that Jeanne’s role is played by Michèle Morgan, an extremely attractive woman, only accentuates this ambiguity).