The Passion of Joan of Arc (found silent French film; 1928): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:13, 26 March 2016

Film poster.

Status: Found

Date found: 1981

Found by: Janitor at Dikemark Hospital

The Passion of Joan of Arc is a 1928 silent French film by Carl Theodor Dreyer.^[1] It was incredibly influential and innovative for its time, pioneering new shot types like close-ups. The film chronicled the events of the final days of Joan's life leading up to her execution. The dialogue was taken primarily from her court records. To this day, it is considered one of the most powerful and impressive films of its time.

It also contains what is often considered to be cinema's greatest onscreen performance: Renée Jeanne Falconetti as Joan of Arc. It is often rumored that she got so into acting that she had to be briefly institutionalized for believing she really was Joan of Arc.

The film went through a long and troubled production. Dreyer, a perfectionist, demanded several takes of scenes. Dreyer slaved over hours of raw footage to create his vision of the perfect film. However, the film was met with controversy upon release.

Many theaters refused to screen the film because it portrayed members of the British church so starkly. As such, very few copies of the film were created. It became one of the first films to be destroyed due to it's silver nitrate composition in many studio fires, with the final known copy having been destroyed in 1929 in a lab fire.

The film was re-made using spare footage and alternate takes in 1933 into a briefer 61-minute version. Considered vastly inferior to the original, the film was mostly only shown to people for educational purposes.

Dreyer died thinking that his masterpiece was lost forever. Then, in 1981, a janitor found a pristine film reel of the original film in a Swedish mental hospital. The movie was painstakingly restored over the following year and was finally shown to a crowded theater in 1982.^[2]

Many musical compositions, most notably Richard Einhorn's "Voices of Light," are known to accompany the film today. "Voices of Light" is now acclaimed as one of the greatest film scores of all time. However, some may prefer to watch the film in total silence, as Falconetti's performance and the passion in the film is considered among cinema's most captivating.

References

↑ IMDb page. Retrieved 25 Mar '16.
↑ Wikipedia article. Retrieved 25 Mar '16.

[1] IMDb page. Retrieved 25 Mar '16.

[2] Wikipedia article. Retrieved 25 Mar '16.

[1]

[2]

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-[[File:Passionarc.jpg|thumb|215px]]
+{{InfoboxFound
-'''''The Passion of Joan of Arc''''' is a 1928 silent French film by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is incredibly influential, pioneering the use of close-ups, particularly without makeup. The film cronicled the events of the final days of Joan's life, leading up to her execution. The dialogue was taken almost verbatum from her court records. To this day, it is considered one of the most depressing movies to sit through, often surpassing ''United 93'', ''Requiem for a Dream'', and ''Schindler's List'' as far as movies that the viewer is often left too uncomfortable to watch again.
+|title=<center>The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)</center>
+|image=Passionarc.jpg
+|imagecaption=Film poster.
+|status=<span style="color:red;">'''Found'''</span>
+|datefound=1981
+|foundby=Janitor at Dikemark Hospital
+}}
-It also contains what is often called cinema's greatest onscreen performance: Renée Jeanne Falconetti as the title character. It is often rumored that she got so into her method acting that she had to be institutionalized for a short while because she really believed she was Joan.
+'''''The Passion of Joan of Arc''''' is a 1928 silent French film by Carl Theodor Dreyer.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019254/ IMDb page.] Retrieved 25 Mar '16.</ref> It was incredibly influential and innovative for its time, pioneering new shot types like close-ups. The film chronicled the events of the final days of Joan's life leading up to her execution. The dialogue was taken primarily from her court records. To this day, it is considered one of the most powerful and impressive films of its time.
-The film went through a long and troubled production. Dreyer, a perfectionist, demanded several takes of scenes and his sets he demanded to be flawless. The film had loads of raw footage that Dreyer slaved over to create his vision of the perfect movie to tell Joan's story. Unfortunately, though, the film was blasted with controversy upon release.
+It also contains what is often considered to be cinema's greatest onscreen performance: Renée Jeanne Falconetti as Joan of Arc. It is often rumored that she got so into acting that she had to be briefly institutionalized for believing she really was Joan of Arc.
-Because the film portrayed members of the British church in a rather unflattering light, many theaters refused to screen it. This led to very few copies of the film existing to begin with. It became one of the first films to be destroyed due to it's silver nitrate composition in many studio fires, with the final known copy having been destroyed in 1929 in a lab fire.
+The film went through a long and troubled production. Dreyer, a perfectionist, demanded several takes of scenes. Dreyer slaved over hours of raw footage to create his vision of the perfect film. However, the film was met with controversy upon release.
-The film was re-made using spare footage of alternate takes and camera angles into a 61 minute version in 1933. Often considered vastly inferior to the original, the film was mostly only shown to people for educational purposes. The movie was then taken many times and altered by various companies. Many of these altered versions include awkward voice dubbing, narration, subtitles explaining everything that was going on, and even strange inclusions of unrelated scenes from other movies.
+Many theaters refused to screen the film because it portrayed members of the British church so starkly. As such, very few copies of the film were created. It became one of the first films to be destroyed due to it's silver nitrate composition in many studio fires, with the final known copy having been destroyed in 1929 in a lab fire.
-Dreyer died disappointed that his masterpiece was long thought lost. Then, a miracle happened in 1981 when a janitor found an odd, prestine film reel of the original film in a Swedish mental hospital. It is often theorized and joked that for years the only people who were seeing the "true" version of the film for decades were insane and suicidal people. The movie was restored painstakingly over the course of a year and finally shown to a crowded theater in 1982.
+The film was re-made using spare footage and alternate takes in 1933 into a briefer 61-minute version. Considered vastly inferior to the original, the film was mostly only shown to people for educational purposes.
-The film is now famous for it's numerous musical compositions, most notably Richard Einhorn's "Voices of Light". It is now acclaimed as one of the greatest film compositions of all time and has even been analyzed in ways that only Beethoven's 9th and ''Rite of Spring'' have ever been analyzed. The film is highly recommended to be viewed with either that score, or in entire silence, letting the movie on it's own captivate the viewer.
+Dreyer died thinking that his masterpiece was lost forever. Then, in 1981, a janitor found a pristine film reel of the original film in a Swedish mental hospital. The movie was painstakingly restored over the following year and was finally shown to a crowded theater in 1982.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_Joan_of_Arc Wikipedia article.] Retrieved 25 Mar '16.</ref>
+Many musical compositions, most notably Richard Einhorn's "Voices of Light," are known to accompany the film today. "Voices of Light" is now acclaimed as one of the greatest film scores of all time. However, some may prefer to watch the film in total silence, as Falconetti's performance and the passion in the film is considered among cinema's most captivating.
+==References==
+<references/>
 [[Category:Lost films|Passion of Joan of Arc (Formerly Missing 1928 Silent French Film)]]