The 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc was almost lost to history after two separate fires destroyed the original copies. Then, in 1981, in a mental institution in Norway, an original print was found in a janitors closet. It’s one of the great miracles of movie history.
And the film itself is considered by some to be as miraculous as the story of its survival. Carl Theodore Dreyer wanted to get to the heart of the girl named Joan, not the mythic Saint and War Hero. Dreyer’s movie is filmed almost completely in close-ups, and tells of Joan’s trial and execution by the church in 1431.
Andrew, Chris, and Chris discuss whether Dreyer succeeds in making Joan human. Or, maybe he fetishize the suffering of a young woman? Are modern audiences too removed to relate to Joan’s visions and belief? And, really, what is the purpose of film art when it comes to pictures like The Passion of Joan of Arc? High falutin’ stuff, this week on the Stake Podcast.
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Next week on the Stake Podcast, Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
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