NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Radiance Blu-ray (May 2026): Radiance have transferred Jacques Rivette's Jeanne la Pucelle to Blu-ray. Radiance’s 4K restoration from the original camera negatives, presented here in a pristine 1080P encode across two Blu-ray discs, is a revelation for this long, deliberately austere film. The earthy, naturalistic palette - muted greens, browns, and soft natural light - is rendered with excellent tonal separation, fine detail in chainmail, fabrics, and landscapes, and a pleasing filmic grain structure that never feels artificial. Black levels are deep yet detailed in the shadowy interiors of Les Prisons, while the open-air sequences of Les Batailles breathe with spacious depth and clarity. Minor source fluctuations exist (as expected from a 1994 production shot largely in available light), but overall the transfer honors Rivette’s observational style: clean, stable, and immersive without digital smoothing or over-sharpening. It’s one of the strongest catalogue restorations Radiance has delivered.

NOTE: We have added 100 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-rays, Radiance use lossless DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track (24-bit) in the original French language. It beautifully expands the original sound design while remaining faithful to its intimate spirit. The mix delivers immersive natural ambience - clanking armor, rustling fabrics, wind across fields, and the crackle of fires - positioned effectively across the channels for a tangible sense of space. Jordi Savall’s spare, historically grounded medieval score gains welcome depth and clarity in the surrounds without ever overpowering the dialogue or diegetic elements. The French track is clean and well-balanced making this a noticeable upgrade in presence and atmosphere over a basic mono presentation while still honoring Rivette’s restrained, theatrical approach. Radiance offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE-locked Blu-rays.

The extras on the Radiance Blu-ray package are excellent. The archival highlight is a 5-minute 1994 excerpt from the French talk show 'Bouillon de Culture', where Sandrine Bonnaire discusses other cinematic Joan of Arc portrayals and Jacques Rivette explains his documentary-like approach. New material filmed exclusively for Radiance in February 2026 includes a substantial 13-minute interview with co-writer Pascal Bonitzer on the project’s long development, extensive research, and on-set writing process, and a rich 20-minute piece with film critic Beatrice Loayza comparing Rivette’s film to other adaptations while analyzing his distinctive style and treatment of this iconic historical figure. Also included are two original trailers, a reversible sleeve (see below) with poster artwork, and a limited-edition booklet featuring new writing by Willow Catelyn Maclay (Corpses, Fools and Monsters) plus newly translated archival texts.

Jacques Rivette's Jeanne la Pucelle is a monumental, rigorously unsensational two-part epic - Les Batailles (The Battles, approximately 160 minutes) and Les Prisons (The Prisons, approximately 176 minutes), totaling 5.5 hours - that stands as one of the most intellectually and spiritually committed screen treatments of Joan of Arc. Co-written with Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent (who collaborated together on The Story of Marie and Julien, La belle noiseuse,) and drawing on the historical record (particularly the transcripts of Joan’s 1456 rehabilitation trial for meticulous fidelity,) the film follows the peasant girl from Domrémy - portrayed with earthy conviction and luminous intensity by Sandrine Bonnaire (À nos amours, Vagabond, Monsieur Hire, La Cérémonie, The Color of Lies, Sous le soleil de Satan, Police) - as she heeds divine voices, rallies the French against the English, engineers the Dauphin’s coronation (kept pointedly offscreen), and ultimately faces betrayal, captivity, and execution. True to Rivette’s (Céline and Julie Go Boating, Noroit, Duelle, Out 1: Noli Me Tangere, Out 1: Spectre, Merry-Go-Round, L’Amour fou, Va savoir, La belle noiseuse,) style, the work favors long takes, deliberate gliding camera movements, minimalism in sets and costumes, and meticulous historical detail over melodrama or mystical fireworks. It presents Joan less as a divine icon or tragic martyr and more as a determined, physically courageous young woman of unshakable faith navigating the treacherous politics of church and court. These storytelling devices, combined with sparse intertitles for dates and locations, evokes documentary realism while subtly nodding to the imperfect transmission of history and myth-making. The mise-en-scène is flattened and picturesque, recalling medieval devotional art, with transitions from sprawling landscapes in The Battles to the confined, claustrophobic spaces of halls and cells in The Prisons. Rivette consciously positions the film as a response to earlier Joan adaptations - Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Robert Bresson’s The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962), and Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan (1957) - by minimizing repetition of their iconic events and rejecting their mannered or expressionist intensities. Critically, the film has been hailed as a late-career masterpiece and one of Rivette’s most accessible yet demanding works - essential for its patient, rational portrait of a 15th-century teenager who briefly altered history. It humanizes Joan without diminishing her mystery, offering a plausible, breathing depiction of leadership, doubt, and resilience. In an era of lavish historical spectacles, Rivette’s austere epic reminds us that true conviction often unfolds in the quiet spaces between miracles: in strategy sessions, weary marches, whispered doubts, and the unyielding gaze of a girl who knew what she must do - even when she didn’t know how. Radiance’s Blu-ray of Jeanne la Pucelle is a model boutique release that does full justice to one of Rivette’s most demanding yet rewarding late works. The excellent 4K restoration, rich lossless surround track, and thoughtfully curated extras - especially the new interviews with Bonitzer and Loayza alongside the valuable 1994 archival footage with Rivette and Bonnaire - make this the definitive home-video edition. For admirers of Rivette, Sandrine Bonnaire, or thoughtful historical cinema, this set is essential: patient, handsome, and intellectually nourishing. Absolutely recommended.

Gary Tooze