Damn, the only Robert Bresson film my library has is an allegory about the hard life of a donkey, which actually looks kind of good (But they got a shitload of Luc Besson movies, from LA FEMME NIKITA to TRANSPORTER 4. Figures...). So I'll have to see if my sister Ali is willing to put The Trial of Joan of Arc in her Netflix queue. She just might, she's cool with subtitles and there's nothing she likes better than some old b+w Criterion Collection film that won the Golden Gizzard award at Warsaw International Film Exposition 1958...

A great hard to find historical drama about an uppity woman running afoul of the Catholic church is a Mexican film (1990, directed by Maria Luisa Bemberg) called I, THE WORST OF ALL. It's about a nun in 1600's Mexico---Sister Juana Inez de la Cruz---who gets a house call from the Inquisition over her writings, her scientific inquiries, her erotic poetry. It's almost as if they can't believe a woman could be so smart, maybe the devil is talking thru her. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that it doesn't end well for her.

The cinematography is kind of muddy but the dialogue and headgames are intense, and if you're like me those Inquisition dirtbags will make you very angry. If you can't find the film Sister Juana herself is worth looking up online...