I bought this in the vague hope of stumbling on one more underpublicized and underappreciated (in the US) French masterpiece such as Claude Berri's  Queen Margot.  Not quite!  There are certainly aspects of brilliance here  both in the cinematography and Mila Jovovich's performance, but there is a  tremendous amount of anarchy and occasional apparent aimlessness in the  plot.  Of course the Joan of Arc story is well known, but many times, the  director seemed to let things ramble on without good tie ins.  It's a long  film, but that shouldn't be a vice.  Here it is, because long portions  could be cut without harming the overall effect.  Better yet, the themes  could have been better established and linked and the character development  focused better.  Apart from the title character, everyone else was pretty  much constructed of cardboard.