SUBJECTS

Christian martyrs -- Drama, Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431 -- Drama, Persecution -- Drama, Saints -- Drama

The Passion of Joan of Arc

(La passion de Jeanne d'Arc)

New Digital Restoration

featuring

Maria Falconetti, Eugène Silvain, Antonin Artaud, Michel Simon,

This new digital restoration features Richard Eisenhorn’s Voices of Light score. An archival 35mm print of the film screens with live piano accompaniment on December 16.

Carl Dreyer’s remarkable depiction of the trial and execution of Joan of Arc (condensed for the sake of narrative from eighteen months to one day) was written largely from the actual records of the trial and based on historical evidence that had come to light in 1924, four years before the film was made. Often cited as an “austere masterpiece,” with reference to the starkness of Dreyer’s sets, his refusal to allow his actors to use makeup, and his use of extreme close-up photography, The Passion of Joan of Arc is in fact one of the most poignant, terrifying, and unrelentingly emotional historical documents ever filmed. “I am searching for nothing but life,” Dreyer wrote during the shooting. “It is the objective drama of the spirit that is important, not the objective drama of the images.” Originally intending to make a sound film, Dreyer was forced by finances to abandon the idea. Maria Falconetti gives one of the greatest of all silent screen performances in her first (and last) film role, and Antonin Artaud and Michel Simon are memorably captured by Rudolph Maté’s camera.

Judy Bloch
FILM DETAILS 
Cinematographer
  • Rudolph Maté
Print Info
  • B&W
  • DCP
  • Silent
  • 81 mins
Source
  • Janus Films
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (The passion of Joan of Arc) documents  

Carl Theodor Dreyer (program note), Pacific Film Archive, 2010

Voices of light: The Passion of Joan of Arc (advertisement), University of California, Berkeley, 2008

Moving pictures: chorus performs dramatic oratorio for classic film (article), Berkeley Daily Planet, Justin DeFreitas, 2008

Jean-Luc Godard : Master of modern cinema -- a definitive tribute (program note), National Film Theatre (London, England), 2001

The passion of Joan of Arc (program note), Cinematheque Ontario/a division of Toronto International Film Festival Group, 2000

An Arc du triomphe (article), Metro Santa Cruz, Traci Hukill, 1996

Libretto for Voices of Light (program note), Cabrillo Music Festival, Richard Einhorn, 1996

La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (program note), American Cinematheque, 1995

The passion of Joan of Arc (flyer), Cambridge Film Festival, 1992

Carl Dreyer: the revolution of a single soul (article), East Bay Express, Kelly Vance, 1989

Displaying 10 of 42 publicly available documents.


View all La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (The passion of Joan of Arc) documentation on CineFiles.