The Passion of Jeanne of Arc
[silent film, Carl Theodor Dreyer, France 1928]
live-music: Einfrierung [2003] by IzP
duration: 94'
(first performed: april 27th 2003, Jeonju / South-Korea)
Dreyer uses judicial records from May 1431 as the basis for his
film on the trial, suffering, and death of St. Joan of Arc. Called a
“symphony of faces” by a contemporary critic, it remains the film
that to this day serves as one of the purest examples of the emotive
power of the cinematic close-up. However, the film shows much more
than that: it is a highly sensitive composition with the finest
gray-scale nuances of black and white film. Moreover, it shows that
a silent film can contain dialogue, and that it can break with the
conventions of historical films, remaining timeless in its
organization. Its content unmasks both the double-faced aspects of
sanctimony as well as background power struggles of ecclesiastical
and secular nature. It is thus a richly faceted work of
cinematography from the multifaceted cinematic year of 1928.
[text: Peter Ellenbruch / Scopium]
In the silent film “La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc” of Carl Theodor
Dreyer, the use of text panels goes far beyond the advancement of
the plot: the panels deepen the cinematic content insofar as the
spoken (but inaudible) words form a cinematic symbiosis with their
written counterparts. Consequently, content that would not be
conveyed purely by pantomime can be cinematically portrayed, in a
sense as it would be in sound film. It is as if the written word
forms a synaesthetic connection with the preceding or following
close-ups, and this connection then begins to sound in the mind of
the viewer. Interzone perceptible uses these phenomena, employing
the spoken word as starting material, from which a “crystallizing”
electronic music is created. This in turn transforms the film’s
material into a merciless crescendo … complete solidification … ice
crystals, that are still freezing in the air … a laryngeal scream
that goes far beyond the length of the breath … the live musician
will seldom be tolerated by the prerecorded CD sound.
[translated by Eric Flesher]