Johanna

Films are all too often described as special. But how can this film be described at all? A film in which the dialogues are sung, but which seems to ignore all the optimism and joi de vivre of the musical genre. A film that sounds like an opera, but that turns all the drama of this ancient art form into an ashen-grey and futureless realism. A film about a junkie in which the modern urban world plays no role and religiosity is almost tangibly present. And with a holy woman who copulates more than a whore. Yes, you would have to call this a special film. Johanna’s character is based on Joan of Arc, but the church tribunals and battlefields of the Middle Ages have been replaced by the population of a hospital in a highly decrepit state. The drug addict Johanna is admitted in a coma after a serious accident. The doctors seem sure she will die, but miraculously she survives. In order to show her gratitude for the miracle, after recovering she helps care for the patients as a strikingly willing volunteer nurse. She discovers that she can cure the ill by making love to them. Joan is a film that can be described as daring and uncompromising in every respect. Also, a film with a remarkably steady style, in which the courageous undertaking of making a melancholy film opera is maintained with verve until the very end. (GjZ)

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