''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (french: link=no, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) is a 1928 French silent
historical film
A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swa ...
French nationalist
French nationalism () usually manifests as cultural nationalism, promoting the cultural unity of France.
History
French nationalism emerged from its numerous wars with England, which involved the reconquest of the territories that made up Fra ...
s' skepticism about whether a Dane could direct a film about one of France's most revered historical icons. Dreyer's final version of the film was cut down due to pressure from the Archbishop of Paris and government censors. For several decades, it was released and viewed in various re-edited versions that attempted to restore Dreyer's final cut. In 1981, a print of Dreyer's final cut was discovered in Dikemark Hospital, a mental institution just outside
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
, and re-released.
Despite the objections and cutting of the film by clerical and government authorities, it was a major critical success when first released and has consistently been considered one of the
greatest films ever made
This is a list of films considered the best in national and international surveys of critics and the public.
Some surveys focus on all films, while others focus on a particular genre or country. Voting systems differ, and some surveys suffe ...
since 1928. It has been praised and referenced by many film directors and musicians. In 1958, the film was voted number 4 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo.
Plot
After having led the French in numerous battles against the English during the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc is captured near Compiegne and eventually brought to Rouen to stand trial for
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
by French clergymen loyal to the English.
On 30 May 1431, Joan is interrogated by the French clerical court. Her judges, who are on the side of the Burgundian-English coalition and against the King of France, try to make her say something that will discredit her claim or shake her belief that she has been given a mission by God to drive the English from France, but she remains steadfast. One or two of them, believing that she is indeed a saint, support her. The authorities then resort to deception. A priest reads a false letter in the prison to the illiterate Joan, supposedly from King Charles VII of France, telling her to trust in the bearer. When that too fails, Joan is taken to view the torture chamber, but the sight, though it causes her to faint, does not intimidate her.
When she is threatened with
burning at the stake
Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...
, Joan finally breaks and allows a priest to guide her hand in signing a confession. However, the judge then condemns her to life imprisonment. After the jailer shaves her head, she realises that she has been unfaithful to God. She demands that the judges return and she recants her confession.
As more and more around her begin to recognise her true faith and calling, she is permitted a final communion mass. She is then dressed in
sackcloth
Sackcloth ( ''Ćaq'') is a coarsely woven fabric, usually made of goat's hair. The term in English often connotes the biblical usage, where the '' Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible'' remarks that haircloth would be more appropriate rendering of th ...
Pierre Cauchon
Pierre Cauchon (1371 – 18 December 1442) was Bishop of Beauvais from 1420 to 1432. He was a strong partisan of English interests in France during the latter years of the Hundred Years' War. He was the judge in the trial of Joan of Arc an ...
Maurice Schutz
Maurice Schutz (4 August 1866 â 22 March 1955) was a French film actor.
He starred in some 91 films between 1918 and 1952.
Selected filmography
* '' Quatre-vingt-treize'' (1920)
* '' Au-delĂ des lois humaines'' (1920)
* '' The Three Masks' ...
as Nicolas Loyseleur, a
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
* Antonin Artaud as Jean Massieu, the Dean of Rouen
* Gilbert Dalleu as Jean Lemaitre, the Vice-Inquisitor
* Jean d'Yd as Nicolas de Houppeville
* Louis Ravet as Jean BeaupĂšre (as Ravet)
* Camille Bardou as Lord Warwick, the English captain in Rouen
Judges
*
Michel Simon
Michel Simon (; 9 April 1895 â 30 May 1975) was a Swiss-French actor. He appeared in many notable French films, including ''La Chienne'' (1931), ''Boudu Saved from Drowning'' (1932), ''L'Atalante'' (1934), ''Port of Shadows'' (1938), '' The He ...
* Paul Fromet
* Armand Lurville
* Jacques Arnna
*
Alexandre Mihalesco
Alexandre Mihalesco (; born Alexandru MihÄilescu, ; 19 October 1883 â 28 December 1974) was a Romanian film actor who largely appeared in French productions.Goble p.2
Selected filmography
* ''The Independence of Romania'' (1912)
* ''On the W ...
Master of the House
''Master of the House'' ( da, Du skal ĂŠre din hustru, literally ''Thou Shalt Honour Thy Wife'') is a 1925 Danish silent drama film directed and written by acclaimed filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film marked the debut of Karin Nellemose, ...
. He claimed that the final decision on the film's subject was determined by drawing matches. Joan of Arc was in the news after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, having been canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920, and named one of the patron saints of France. Dreyer spent over a year and a half researching Joan, the script based on the original transcripts of her trial, condensing 29 interrogations over the course of 18 months into one day.Wakeman. p. 268. The rights to
Joseph Delteil
Joseph Delteil (20 April 1894 â 16 April 1978) was a 20th-century French writer and poet.
Biography
Joseph Delteil was born in the farm of La Pradeille, from a woodcutter-charcoal father and a "buissonniĂšre" mother. Joseph Delteil spent ...
's 1925 anti-conformist book on Joan were bought for the production. Nothing from Delteil's book was used in the film; however, he was credited as a source. In an essay for the
Danish Film Institute
The Danish Film Institute ( da, Det Danske Filminstitut) is the national Danish agency responsible for supporting and encouraging film and cinema culture, and for conserving these in the national interest.
Also known as ''Filmhuset'' ("the film ...
, Dreyer stated what he sought to achieve: "I wanted to interpret a hymn to the triumph of the soul over life."
Victor Margueritte
Victor Margueritte (1 December 186623 March 1942) was a French novelist. He was the younger brother of Paul Margueritte (1860–1918).
Life
He and his brother were born in Algeria. They were the sons of General Jean Auguste Margueritte (1 ...
's '' La Garçonne'', a comedic play in which she was appearing. He was initially unimpressed, but upon seeing her a second time the day after, Dreyer said he "felt there was something in her which could be brought out; something she could give, something, therefore, I could take. For behind the make-up, behind the pose and that ravishing modern appearance, there was something. There was a soul behind that facade." Dreyer asked her to do some screen tests the next day, but without any make-up. During the tests, he "found in her face exactly what I wanted for Joan: a country girl, very sincere, but also a woman of suffering." Dreyer then told Falconetti about the film and her role in great detail. She agreed to star in the film, secretly hoping that she would not have to cut her hair or forgo make-up.Jean Renoir praised her performance and said "That shaven head was and remains the abstraction of the whole epic of Joan of Arc." She was famously treated harshly by Dreyer, who had a reputation for being a tyrannical director. Dreyer would always clear the set whenever Falconetti needed to act in a particularly emotional or important scene, allowing her to focus without any distractions. Dreyer often had difficulties explaining himself to Falconetti and was known to turn bright red and begin stammering when passionately directing her. Dreyer had stated that a director "must be careful never to force his own interpretation on an actor, because an actor cannot create truth and pure emotions on command. One cannot push feelings out. They have to arise from themselves, and it is the director's and actor's work in unison to bring them to that point." Later in post-production, Falconetti was the only cast member to watch the rushes and the film's editing. According to critic Roger Ebert:
For Falconetti, the performance was an ordeal. Legends from the set tell of Dreyer forcing her to kneel painfully on stone and then wipe all expression from her faceâso that the viewer would read suppressed or inner pain. He filmed the same shots again and again, hoping that in the editing room he could find exactly the right nuance in her facial expression.
Among the other cast members was French playwright Antonin Artaud as the monk Massieu. Artaud later stated that the film was meant to "reveal Joan as the victim of one of the most terrible of all perversions: the perversion of a divine principle in its passage through the minds of men, whether they be Church, Government or what you will."
Cinematography
The camerawork of ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' was highly unconventional in its radical emphasis on the actors' facial features. Dreyer shot much of the film in close-up, stating, "There were questions, there were answers- very short, very crisp... Each question, each answer, quite naturally called for a close-up... In addition, the result of the close-ups was that the spectator was as shocked as Joan was, receiving the questions, tortured by them." Dreyer also did not allow his actors to wear makeup, the better to tell the story through their expressionsâthis choice was made possible through use of the recently developed panchromatic film, which recorded skin tones in a naturalistic manner.
Dreyer often shot the priests and Joan's other interrogators in high contrast lighting, but then shot Joan in soft, even lighting.
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek ÎșÎŻÎœÎ·ÎŒÎ±, ''kĂŹnema'' "movement" and ÎłÏÎŹÏΔÎčÎœ, ''grĂ phein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
also allowed unappealing details in people's faces, such as warts and lumps, to be fully visible. In addition, Dreyer employed many
low-angle shot
In cinematography, a low-angle shot, is a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere below the eye line, looking up. Dreyer also shot the film "from the first to the last scene ... in the right order."
Art direction
The film had one of the most expensive sets ever built for a European film up to that time. Upon being given a budget of seven million
francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
, Dreyer constructed an enormous octagonal concrete set to depict Rouen Castle. Production designers
Hermann Warm
Hermann Warm was a German art director for films. Born in 1889 (died 1976) in Berlin, Germany, Warm was an important figure in the expressionist movement of the 1920s. Warm entered the German film industry in 1912 after working on-stage for a w ...
and
Jean Hugo
Jean Hugo (19 November 1894 â 21 June 1984) was a painter, illustrator, theatre designer and author. He was born in Paris and died in his home at the Mas de Fourques, near Lunel, France. Brought up in a lively artistic environment, he began ...
were inspired by medieval miniatures for their designs, adding unnatural angles and perspectives to add to Joan's emotional state of mind. They also relied on medieval manuscripts with accurate architectural drawings, such as
John Mandeville
Sir John Mandeville is the supposed author of ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', a travel memoir which first circulated between 1357 and 1371. The earliest-surviving text is in French.
By aid of translations into many other languages, the ...
's '' Livre de Merveilles''.Criterion. Production design. The huge set was built as one complete, interconnecting structure instead of in separate locations. The castle had towers in all four corners with concrete walls running along the sides. Each wall was 10 centimeters thick so that they could support the weight of actors, technicians and equipment. A functional drawbridge was also built into one of the walls. Inside the walls were small houses, the courtyard where the burning took place and a cathedral. The entire set was painted pink so that it would appear grey in the black and white film and contrast against the white sky above it.
Regardless of the detail put into the set, only segments of it are ever visible in the film, which later angered the film's producers since so much money was spent on the set. Dreyer later expressed, however, that the scope of the set heightened the abilities of the actors and actresses to give convincing performances. Hermann Warm's original models for the film's set are currently stored at the
Danish Film Institute
The Danish Film Institute ( da, Det Danske Filminstitut) is the national Danish agency responsible for supporting and encouraging film and cinema culture, and for conserving these in the national interest.
Also known as ''Filmhuset'' ("the film ...
Archives.
Release and different versions
''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' debuted on 21 April 1928 at the Palads Teatret cinema in Copenhagen. After a few private screenings, it finally premiered in Paris on 25 October 1928 at the Cinema Marivaux. The film's release was delayed due to the persistent efforts of many French nationalists â who objected to the fact that Dreyer was neither Catholic nor French, and to the then-rumored casting of Lillian Gish as Joan. As early as January 1927, Jean-Jose Frappa said that "whatever the talent of the director (and he has it)...he cannot give us a Joan of Arc in the true French tradition. And the American 'star'...cannot be our Joan, wholesome, lively, shining with purity, faith, courage and patriotism. To let this be made in France would be a scandalous abdication of responsibility."Criterion. Version History. Before its French premiere, several cuts were made by order of the Archbishop of Paris and by government censors. Dreyer was angered by these cuts, as he had no control over them. Later that year on 6 December, a fire at UFA studios in Berlin destroyed the film's original negative; only a few copies of Dreyer's original cut of the film existed. Dreyer was able to patch together a new version of the original cut using alternate and initially unused takes. This version was also destroyed in a 1929 lab fire. Over the next four decades, it became difficult to find copies of Dreyer's second version, and copies of the original were thought to be even scarcer.
It was re-released in 1933 in a 61-minute cut which included a new narration by radio star David Ross, but no
intertitles
In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...
found a copy of the negative of Dreyer's second version in the Gaumont Studios vaults. Lo Duca then made several significant changes, including the addition of a Baroque score and the replacing of many intertitles with subtitles. For many years, Lo Duca's version was the only one available. Dreyer himself objected to this cut, however.
The next version of the film was produced by Arnie Krogh of the Danish Film Institute. Krogh cut together scenes and sequences from several different available prints to attempt to create a cut that was as true to Dreyer's original vision as possible.
Rediscovery of original version
The original version was lost for decades after a fire destroyed the master negative and only variations of Dreyer's second version were available. In 1981, an employee of the Dikemark Hospital mental institution in
Asker
Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greater Asker) in Viken county, ...
found several film canisters in a janitor's closet that were labeled as being ''The Passion of Joan of Arc''. The canisters were sent to the
Norwegian Film Institute
The Norwegian Film Institute ( no, Norsk filminstitutt) was founded in 1955 to support and develop the Norwegian film industry. On 1 April 2008, it was merged with Norwegian Film Fund, Norwegian Film Development, and Norwegian Film Commission to ...
where they were first stored for three years until finally being examined. It was then discovered that they were Dreyer's original cut prior to government or church censorship. There were never any records of the film being shipped to Asker, but film historians believe that the then director of the institution may have requested a special copy since he was a friend of Dreyer's and also a published historian, and an expert on
stigmata
Stigmata ( grc, ÏÏÎŻÎłÎŒÎ±Ïα, plural of , 'mark, spot, brand'), in Roman Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, and feet.
Sti ...
. The Catholic Church had condemned Dreyer's depiction of Joan's stigmata.
The film and Falconetti's performance have continued to be praised by critics.
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 â September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for ''The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008, when he retired. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has ...
wrote that "Dreyer's radical approach to constructing space and the slow intensity of his mobile style make this âdifficultâ in the sense that, like all the greatest films, it reinvents the world from the ground up."
Some critics have found faults in the film, and
Paul Rotha
Paul Rotha (3 June 1907 â 7 March 1984) was a British documentary film-maker, film historian and critic.
Early life and education
He was born Paul Thompson in London, and educated at Highgate School and at the Slade School of Fine Art.
Career ...
called it "one of the most remarkable productions ever realized in the history and development of cinema, ''but it was not a full exposition of real filmic properties''".
Tom Milne
Tom Milne (2 April 1926 – 14 December 2005) was a British film critic. See also
After war service, he studied English and French at Aberdeen University and later at the Sorbonne. Interested in the theatre too, he wrote for the magazine ' ...
stated that "somehow the style Dreyer found for the film seems irremediably false. Instead of flowing naturally from his chosen materials...it seems imposed upon them...Throughout the film there is a constant stylistic uncertainty, an impurity, which jars heavily today," but added that "''Jeanne d'Arc'' has a majestic power which steamrollers its way through all its faults and excesses." On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'' ranked it the eighth greatest film of the twentieth century in a 2000 poll of critics. In January 2002, the film was voted at No. 69 on the list of the "Top 100 Essential Films of All Time" by the
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) is an American film critic organization. The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the most prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In January 2014, ...
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' magazine's top ten films poll five times: as number seven in 1952 and 1972, as number ten (Critic's List) and six (Director's List) in 1992 and as number nine in 2012 (Critic's List). It ranked thirty-seventh on the Director's List in 2012 and was listed by such filmmakers as Manoel de Oliveira,
Tsai Ming-Liang
Tsai Ming-liang (; born 27 October 1957) is a Malaysian-Taiwanese filmmaker. Tsai has written and directed 11 feature films, many short films, and television films. He is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of Taiwanese ...
,
Walter Salles
Walter Moreira Salles JĂșnior (; born 12 April 1956) is a Brazilian filmmaker.
Early life
Salles was born on 12 April 1956 in Rio de Janeiro and attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He is the son of Brazi ...
Michael Mann
Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ...
, who called it "Human experience conveyed purely from the visualisation of the human face: no one else has composed and realised human beings quite like Dreyer in ''The Passion of Joan of Arc''", and Kutlug Ataman, who said the film "taught me film could be just poetry and timeless." In 2010, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' ranked the film 22nd in its list of 25 greatest arthouse films. In 2010, the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
released its "Essential 100" list of films, which merged one list of the 100 greatest films of all time as determined by an expert panel of TIFF curators with another list determined by TIFF stakeholders. ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' was ranked as the most influential film of all time. Her performance was ranked 26th in ''
Premiere Magazine
A premiĂšre, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premiĂšres: a world premiĂšre (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's list of the 100 greatest foreign-language films, as voted on by 209 film critics from 43 countries.
Scenes from the film appear in Jean-Luc Godard's ''
Vivre sa Vie
''Vivre sa vie'' (french: Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux, lit=To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes) is a 1962 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film was released in the United States as ''My Life t ...
'' (1962), in which the protagonist Nana sees the film at a cinema and identifies with Joan. In ''
Henry & June
''Henry & June'' is a 1990 American biographical drama film directed by Philip Kaufman, and starring Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, and Maria de Medeiros. It is loosely based on the posthumously published 1986 AnaĂŻs Nin book of the same name, and ...
'',
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 â June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...
is shown watching the last scenes of the film and in voice-over narrates a letter to AnaĂŻs Nin comparing her to Joan and himself to the "mad monk" character played by Antonin Artaud.
Music
Scores of Dreyer's lifetime
Different scores were used for the two premieres of the ''Passion of Joan of Arc'' in Copenhagen and Paris. The music of the Paris version, for orchestra and singers, has survived and has been revived. It was composed by Leo Pouget and Victor Alix, who as well as being film composers, both wrote operettas; Pouget was coming to the end of his career, whereas Alix was regarded by ''
'' as becoming an established composer. Their score for the ''Passion of Joan of Arc'' has been seen in recent years as having some limitations, but seems to have been regarded as acceptable at the time.
In the 1920s, film music was normally played live in the theatre. However, some of the Pouget/Alix score was recorded. In 1929, selections were released in 78 format in a performance by "l'orchestre symphonique du Lutetia Wagram" (the ''Lutetia Wagram'' being a large Parisian cinema of the time, since demolished).
Dreyer also heard the soundtrack of Joseph-Marie Lo Duca's version of the film which came out in the 1950s. It featured
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...
,
Albinoni
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 â 17 January 1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas. While famous in his day as an opera comp ...
and
Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 â 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widesprea ...
: Dreyer disapproved; he appears not to have encountered a score which he considered definitive.
Musical accompaniment since 1968
Since Dreyer's death and the rediscovery of the original print, numerous composers have provided music for the film.
* In 1983, the Danish composer and conductor Ole Schmidt composed a score, which was premiered in Los Angeles in 1983 and released on CD by Dacapo Music in 1999
* In 1988, the Dutch composer Jo van den Booren wrote a modern score for symphony orchestra.
* In 1994, composer Richard Einhorn wrote an
oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
based on the film titled ''
Voices of Light
''Voices of Light'' is a 1994 musical composition by Richard Einhorn. It was inspired by the silent film ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (1928), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer; live performances of the composition have accompanied screenings of th ...
''. This piece is available as an optional accompaniment on the Criterion Collection's DVD release.
* On 27 August 1995, Nick Cave and the
Dirty Three
Dirty Three is an Australian instrumental rock band, consisting of Warren Ellis (violin and bass guitar), Mick Turner (electric and bass guitars) and Jim White (drums), which formed in 1992. Their 1996 album '' Horse Stories'' was voted by '' ...
played a live soundtrack to the film at the
National Film Theatre
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute.
His ...
in London.
* In 1999, American singer/songwriter Cat Power provided musical accompaniment at several screenings of the film in the U.S.
* In 2003, American guitarist Rob Byrd performed a live score to the film at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Subsequent live score performances took place in May 2004 at the Red Tail Loft in Boston, April 2008 at Monkeytown in Brooklyn, November 2010 at the Lyndsay Chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 5 December 2015 at Amoskeag Studios in Manchester, New Hampshire, and on 12 April 2016 at the Walpole Public Library in Walpole, Massachusetts.
* In 2003, Norwegian
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
act
Ugress
Ugress is an electronica project from Bergen, Norway, the main project of electronic musician Gisle Martens Meyer (GMM). Gisle started his music career in the early 1990s making Scream Tracker and Fast Tracker modules under the alias ''Gnosis''. ...
released a limited edition CD titled ''La Passion De Jeanne D'Arc: Soundtrack to a Silent Movie''.
* On 16 April 2008, neo-classical/
martial electronica
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD â between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...
group
In The Nursery
In the Nursery are an English neoclassical dark wave and martial industrial band, characterized by their cinematic sound. The duo has provided soundtracks to a variety of TV programmes and films, and is known for its rescoring of silent film ...
premiered a soundtrack for the film at Sheffield Cathedral.
* Danish composer
Jesper Kyd
Jesper Kyd Jakobson (; born 3 February 1972) is a Danish composer and sound designer who has worked on various video game, television, and film projects. He has composed soundtracks for the ''Hitman'' series, ''Assassin's Creed'' series, '' Bord ...
was commissioned by Danish Film Festival founders Christian Ditlev Bruun and Lene Pels Jorgensen to provide a new score for the Danish Film Festival: Los Angeles.
* In 2009, the Estonian composer TÔnu KÔrvits wrote a score for small orchestra (for LŽEnsemble De Basse-Normandie 2009/10 concert season) for this film.
* In 2009, the Lithuanian composer
Bronius KutaviÄius
Bronius KutaviÄius (13 September 1932 â 29 September 2021) was a Lithuanian composer and academic composition teacher. He wrote numerous oratorios and operas, often inspired by ancient Lithuanian polytheistic beliefs and music. He also compose ...
wrote a score for chamber orchestra (for St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra), performed in Scanorama â European film forum in
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
.
* In 2010, American electronic/chamber composer/arranger George Sarah provided an original score along with a string quartet and choir featuring members of the LA Master Chorale at a screening of the film in Los Angeles.
* In 2010, Canadian composer Stefan Smulovitz wrote a score for string quartet, brass, percussion, pipe organ, and solo voice, which premiered at the
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is produced over three weeks each January in Vancouver, British Columbia. The PuSh Festival presents work in the live performing arts.
The Festival showcases international, Canadian and local artis ...
in Vancouver, BC.
* On 7 May 2010, a score by
Adrian Utley
Adrian Francis Utley (born 27 April 1957) is an English musician and producer, and a member of the band Portishead.Jurek, ThomAdrian Utley Biography, Allmusic. Retrieved 31 December 2016
Career
Born in Northampton,Mejia, Paula (2015)In Search ...
and
Will Gregory
William Owen Gregory (born 17 September 1959) is an English musician and record producer. He is best known as the lead keyboardist, producer, and composer of the electronic music duo Goldfrapp.
Early life
Gregory was born in Bristol, the son ...
premiĂšred at the
Colston Hall
Bristol Beacon, previously known as Colston Hall, is a concert hall and Grade II listed building on Colston Street, Bristol, England. It is owned by Bristol City Council. Since 2011, management of the hall has been the direct responsibility of ...
in Bristol. It was a collaboration between Utley, Gregory, the Colston Hall and the
accompanied this film at Chicago International Movies & Music Fest (CIMM Fest).
* In 2013
Roger Eno
Roger Eugene Eno (born in Woodbridge, England, in 1959) is an English ambient music composer. He is the brother of Brian Eno.
Early life and education
Roger Eno began euphonium lessons when he was 12 years old, and entered Colchester Institute ...
provided a live accompaniment in Oxford.
* On 30 May 2013, soloists of the
RIAS Kammerchor
The RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir) is a German choir based in Berlin, Germany. It receives support from the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin ("Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choirs"), a limited-liability company owned by the public bro ...
and the Sheridan Ensemble premiered a version by Australian pianist and composer Philip Mayers in Berlin, Germany, in which motets of Josquin Desprez were interlaced with original music by Philip Mayers. The juxtaposition of music from a few decades after the martyrdom of Jeanne d'Arc and music of the 21st century, played on flute, cello and vibraphone & percussion, sets this version apart from many other scores.
* By the end of September 2014, Matthew Jones (violin) and Jonathan Slaatto (cello) from Danish Ensemble MidtVest, in collaboration with silent film pianist Ronen Thalmay and oboist Henrik Goldschmidt, accompanied this film by the means of free improvisation. Performances were held in Copenhagen (23 September), Sdr. Felding (26 September), Holstebro (27 September), and Ă rhus (29 September).
* On 9 January 2015, Australian post rock band hazards of swimming naked performed an original score accompaniment to a sold out screening of the film at the
Queensland Gallery of Modern Art
The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is an art museum located within the Queensland Cultural Centre in the South Bank precinct of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA.
GOMA, which opened on 2 December 2006, is the largest ...
as part of the Cinematheque's "Myth's and Legends" programme.
* In 2015, Donald Greig of the
Orlando Consort The Orlando Consort is a British vocal consort which is best known for performing Renaissance choral music one voice to a part. The Consort was founded in 1988 as part of the activities of the Early Music Network of Great Britain, a forerunner of th ...
, a British early music group of unaccompanied singers, designed a score consisting of music from the time of Joan of Arc. The Orlando Consort made a tour with the film. The music selected was mainly by French composers and little known to modern audiences outside the world of early music, an exception being the
Agincourt Carol
The Agincourt Carol (sometimes known as the ''Agincourt Song'', the ''Agincourt Hymn'', or by its chorus and central words, ''Deo gratias Anglia'') is an English folk song written some time in the early 15th century. It recounts the 1415 Battle ...
Vigo
Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...
.
* On 29 September 2017,
Julia Holter
Julia Shammas Holter (born December 18, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist and academic, based in Los Angeles. Following three independent album productions, Holter released ''Tragedy'' as her first official ...
performed a world premiere of her scoring of the film in downtown Los Angeles at the Fig at Seventh.
* On 12 May 2018, the Cantilena Chamber Choir and orchestra performed the original Pouget/Alix 1928 score with a showing of the complete film at Trinity Church in Lenox, Massachusetts.
* On 21 October 2018, UK-based duo Marisa and Dan Cornford together with the Cantorum Choir gave the premiere of music by Marisa Cornford at St. Paul's Church,
Wooburn
Wooburn is a large village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located off the A4094 road between Wooburn Green and Bourne End in the very south of the county near the River Thames, about two miles south west of Beaconsfield and four miles east ...
. A second performance was given at Hughenden on 1 May 2019. They played live to picture using electric viola, bass recorder, snare and keyboard with various Logic sounds. Joining them in both was singer Ella Thornton-Wood.
* On 25 May 2019, Gene Pritsker and Franz Hackl performed the world premiere of Pritsker's score for Dreyer's ''Passion of Joan of Arc'' as an accompaniment for a screening of the film on a four-story, IMAX-sized screen. The premiere took place at the GE Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady, New York.
* On 9 June 2019, the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra accompanied a showing of ''Passion of Joan of Arc'' with a modern operatic score, composed by students enrolled in Berklee's film scoring program, at the Cabot Street Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts.
* On 31 October 2019, the Los Angeles-based Morii String Quartet performed an original score co-composed by members of the quartet, which featured microtonality, improvisation, and experimental renditions of early music, in the Bijou Theater at the California Institute of the Arts.
* On 23 November 2022, a new score by US Composer
Julia Holter
Julia Shammas Holter (born December 18, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist and academic, based in Los Angeles. Following three independent album productions, Holter released ''Tragedy'' as her first official ...
, commissioned by
Opera North
Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and ...
List of historical drama films This is an index of lists of historical films.
By country of origin
* List of Estonian war films
* List of Polish war films
* List of Romanian historical films
* List of Russian historical films
* List of Vietnamese historical films
By era ...