Current mood:	impressed
Current music:	the music to some silent film on TCM

Renée Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc.

I just got finished watching this. I didn't really expect to like it in the beginning but I was amazed by how intense and expressive her facial expressions were. I've never seen anything like it. I'm not even religious and I thought that this was an incredible film.




The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) was a silent film released in France in 1928 based on the trial records of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starred Renée Jeanne Falconetti and Antonin Artaud. It is widely regarded as a landmark of silent cinema.



The film details the last hours of Joan of Arc after she has been captured by the English. It details her trial, imprisonment, torture and final execution similar to that of a passion play. What especially stood out at the time Passion was made was the film's camera-work and emphasis on the actors' facial features. Dreyer shot a great deal of the film in close-up and forbade his actors to wear any makeup, the better to tell the story through their expressions. Falconetti — in her second and last movie role — was commended for her multifaceted performance as Joan.



Passion was originally intended to use the new technology of sound, but Dreyer did not have sufficient financing and so the film is silent.

Dreyer intended the film to be watched in complete silence with no musical accompaniment. However, in 1994 composer Richard Einhorn wrote an oratorio based on the movie, entitled "Voices of Light". This piece is now available as an optional accompaniment on the Criterion Collection's DVD release of the film. In 1999, American indie singer/songwriter Cat Power provided musical accompainment at several screenings of the film in America.



Some critics claimed that Passion was the best silent film ever made, and Pauline Kael wrote that Falconetti's portrayal of Joan of Arc "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film." However, it was banned in Britain for its portrayal of crude English soldiers who mock and torment Joan in scenes that mirror biblical accounts of Christ's mocking at the hands of Roman soldiers. The Archbishop of Paris was also critical, demanding changes be made to the film. Whether or not this request was honored in any way is unknown.



The original version of the film was lost for decades, after a fire destroyed the master negative. Dreyer himself attempted to reassemble a version from out-takes and surviving prints, but he died believing his original cut was lost forever. Almost miraculously, a virtually complete print of Dreyer's original version was found in 1981 in a janitor's closet of an Oslo mental institution. This version is now available on DVD.



Source: Wikipedia

I wonder how it ended up in a mental institution?