The Passion of Joan of Arc / Dreyer – The ‘Eternal Time’ of Cinema… - NOSPR

To speak of Scandinavian silent film is to summon the name of Carl Theodor Dreyer. He scaled the Everest of the cinematic art of his era and bestowed upon the world a film as painful as it is beautiful – The Passion of Joan of Arc. To this day, the work remains one of the cornerstones of world cinema history. Dreyer’s achievement has become a point of reference for generations of artists, who continue to perceive in it the source of screen metaphysics perfectly fused with cinematic realism. When the Danish filmmaker began work on the script for The Passion..., he was already held in esteem by audiences, critics, and producers alike. In 1927, the French company Société Générale des Films entrusted him with what was then an exorbitant budget (9 million francs) and granted him complete artistic freedom. Dreyer assumed the role of cinematic chronicler of the events of 1431. His meticulous study of historical documents (the transcripts of Joan’s 29 interrogations, which extended over several months) culminated in his decision to reduce both the temporal and spatial scope of the events presented in his film. The drama of a single day, 30 May 1431 (the date of the execution), takes place at the site of Joan’s martyrdom in Rouen. Carefully constructed, the magnificent sets were impressive, but Dreyer chose to make something else the heart of his film – the faces of Joan and her clerical persecutors. It is Renée Falconetti who dominates the memory of this work, for Dreyer found in her an incarnation of Joan, both in body and spirit. Through her performance, the ‘holy witch’ was given on screen what the Church had denied her: immortality.

Anita Skwara