Dateline: 11/12/99

It is not surprising that the director of La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element would make a film about Joan of Arc. Much like those films, Luc Besson's latest film is centered around a unique female character. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc tells the tale of a strong woman fighting against the odds. This is a woman who, at only seventeen years old, led French troops into battle against the English Army in an attempt that could change the momentum of the Hundred Years War.

In 1429, the English occupied Paris and all of France north of the Loire. The French resistance was minimal due to lack of leadership and a sense of hopelessness. Henry VI of England was claiming the French throne as the French people were starving and helpless. It was at this moment in history when Joan, a mere peasant girl, approached the Dauphin, Charles VII, (played in Besson's film by John Malkovich), who her religious visions told her would be the next king of France. To turn her visions into reality, the holy city of Rheims had to be recaptured from the English. As history commanded, Charles could only be crowned there. With troops provided by the dubious Dauphin, Joan set out to conquer the English.

Milla Jovovich stars as Joan of Arc.

As with Titanic or Romeo & Juliet, it would be difficult to provide a surprise ending to the story of Joan of Arc. Everyone knows what happens to Joan, though for some people, that's all they are sure of. It was with this task at hand that Besson made his version.

The Messenger began production in Czechoslovakia in 1998. Because almost no visual effects were used, each shot had to be staged perfectly. At times, this required a thousand extras, dozens of horses, not to mention heavy armor suits and period costumes. Every aspect of the film was carefully researched for historical accuracy. Everything from the weapons, the building measurements all the way to the number of soldiers in a battle, were re-created as they were in Joan's world. In the end, this allowed Besson to confidently proclaim of his version of the tale, "Ninety percent is true".

When asked about the difficulty of bringing this story to screen, Besson admitted that The Messenger's greatest challenge was more personal. "To be honest, the challenge is always human. It's never the size of the film; even the big side is very mechanical. If you have the right people to help you, if you're very well organized, even if you're tired, you still can do it. The most difficult is more the human part of it, the emotional part of it; is to be able to do seven months of work to catch the feeling of her believing in what Joan sees, and for us to believe also in what she sees."

Milla Jovovich, already an internationally recognized fashion model, plays Joan as a teenage girl. "There was a lot of preparation, about three months," she explained. "I worked on horseback riding, learning to ride in the style of the period, which is really different from modern riding. The last month was just dedicated to riding in the armor." After each day's hard physical work, the Ukrainian Jovovich had to spend hours studying dialect. "I had a voice coach -- I was really concerned about my accent."

Director Luc Besson was part of the action.

Jovovich also read up on Joan's trial in order to get a better feel for her character. "Reading these transcripts was really amazing, because it's so academic and so cold, and it's really like a trial of today. Yet, this girl just comes out of the page spanning over five hundred years, she just pops out as witty, and smart and funny and sarcastic and cynical at times." Milla continued, "This girl had such a personality that had nothing to do with being thoughtful and noble. It's more about the fact that she's so chaotic, she wreaks havoc on everybody around her. That's really in the end how we decided to play her. Every assumption was made through logic."

Jovovich and Besson have collaborated previously on The Fifth Element, and a trust has been formed between the actor and director that led to one of the most gripping scenes of the film. While climbing a fortress wall during a battle sequence, Joan is shot by an archer and falls thirty feet into the arms of her troops below. What is particularly amazing is that the audience is able to look into Jovovich's eyes during her backward fall.

For that shot, Besson held the camera at the top of the ladder as she fell. When asked about that special relationship, Besson replied, "When you work well with an actor or an actress, after a certain time, you fit well, and you understand each other very well, you really have this link based on trust. It's really jumping, and knowing that this guy has a net, somewhere. You trust, and she gave that to me, and she trusted me as a director, and I have to deserve it."

Faye Dunaway as D'Aragon.

Jovovich isn't alone in her trust of the director. Besson seems to inspire great affection in his actors. Faye Dunaway plays Yolande D'Aragon, the mother-in-law of the Dauphin, and the true power behind the throne. Speaking of Besson, she said, "Luc is the reigning French auteur. He brings freshness to all of his projects, and he creates a complete world. I like that he asks questions."

While some might view her as the villain of the story, Dunaway holds her character in very high regard. "She was a politician. It was interesting to see that this woman had attained this kind of power and this kind of intelligence." Yolande D'Aragon was the opposite of Joan, cynical and cunning, and yet, their goal was the same-to see Charles VII made King of France. As Dunaway explained, Yolande was vital to Joan's meeting Charles. "What I found really interesting was that she noticed Joan first. She had spies all over the country and they reported back to her. She noticed that this girl was getting a following."

Since Joan is such a legend, one would think that a French director would have been utterly fascinated with her story from the beginning. However, Besson reveals, "I was not very interested by Saint Joan, because I'm French, so everything you know is: she's great, and she's perfect, and the more you learn about that, the more you feel small. You say, 'you know, I'm happy for her, but then I'm here, a small human being, with all my problems', and you can't learn so much, you know you can't learn anything except she's exceptional." So, how does a filmmaker bring something new to a true story that has been filmed before? Besson chose to focus on what made Joan ordinary, instead of what made her extraordinary.

Ultimately, The Messenger lets the audience decide for themselves whether or not Joan was indeed a saint. When asked if the French people would resent humanizing Joan's legend, Dunaway answered, "I think it's something that they're going to like because they're very smart. This film is going to be something that tries to unravel, understand, and interpret what was going on then, in the light of today."

Jovovich sees Joan as a modern inspiration, whether or not she heard voices from God. "She's a woman with a mission. And I think a lot of girls today can understand that," she said.

Luc Besson explained why he wanted to make a film about Joan, "It's her humanity. It's to give Joan back to the audience, the normal people." After watching The Messenger, hopefully everyone will feel less insignificant. But it is important to keep things in perspective, Besson added. "Never forget that it's just a film, you can give all your heart, your time, and your blood, and your energy, but don't take yourself too seriously at the end of the day. Because, there are people who save people from cancer or AIDs every day-- I'm an aspirin. I can, for two hours, relieve people from pain because they see something that they can identify with, and say, 'I can learn from her'."