A head-banging Joan of Arc with a rhyme-spitting uncle and levitating saints? It can only be the work of Bruno Dumont (Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner for 1999's bleak Humanité). There's no shortage of biopics about the Orléans icon as a young adult, so the French filmmaker's idiosyncratic, if respectful origin story attempts to restore some color to her alabaster cheeks. The director adapted his 10th feature from the works of poet Charles Peìguy, resulting in a beautifully shot film set in a bucolic land of wildflower-covered hills, winding streams, and azure skies. Unfortunately, his G-rated Bresson-as-poptimist approach is surprisingly dull. There's something to be said for the numerous depictions of the French firebrand as an armor-clad warrior rushing into battle and risking the execution that would claim her life at the age of 19. by Kathy Fennessy