I love this place. I LOVE MY BLOG!!! It's my outlet and I tend to rage and laugh, cry and verbally lash out here, because I can. It's what it's here for. What I never considered was that I'd pick up an odd following. I can tell who some of my visitors are and though it's absolute nonsense and of little use to some, I have a friend that reads it. It seems like we have had less time to talk lately but I know when he stops by. He doesn't agree with my politics but likes my writing style. Shout out to him because sometimes that's the only thing that keeps me going. My friends and oddly the people who feel more like family that the people I'm genetically linked to (my children aside). The people who love me and expect so little from me yet understand my odd need for approval.
I know who has popped in on accident and I know who has me bookmarked. Some of the peeps that bookmark me, I don't know why they have, but they visit on a fairly regular basis. I have a reader in France. I was checking out the sites in the area that my reader lives and I'm always stunned at the beauty that exists in this world. Especially in the countries that are so much older and the history so rich in beauty and tragedy. As I was checking out my French readers home area, I remembered that I had gotten a movie yesterday from Netflix. I knew I'd be watching it solo because it's not something the fam will love but unfortunately they WILL be watching it.
I've always been moved by Joan of Arc because it's increasingly rare that someone would be so brutally sacrificed for what they know to be true. The story isn't from the Bible yet it's so much more believed and revered than the story of Joseph Smith who lived and died refusing to deny what he knew to be true. Martyrdom isn't something that happens so much in our current shallow society.
The story of the films very existence is nearly as moving as the movie itself. The movie was filmed by Carl Theodor Dreyer in France in 1928. He chose not to use the screenplay but to stick to the actual transcripts of Joan's trial. I'm not a huge fan of silent film fan, but this one was different. They didn't use make up on the actors at all and it was filmed on panchromatic film which was new to the time and much of the camera time was on actress Maria Falconetti's very expressive face. The film depicts the trial, torture, imprisonment and execution while captive to the English. Shortly after Dreyer was done filming and onto the editing, the master copy was lost in a fire. He tried to cobble together a second one of the film he's left on the cutting room floor. Miraculously, a copy was discovered in a closet in a mental institution in Oslo. Dreyer died not knowing his masterpiece would live on.
In the DVD I watched, I started silent but went back and chose the soundtrack "Voices of Light", an Oratoria written for this movie by composer Richard Einhorn in 1994. It's truly inspired and I recommend it that way. I also used subtitles and the entire dialog isn't translated but that doesn't matter. The story is conveyed by Falconetti's eyes. It also is less cumbersome.
I can't properly convey the wonder I feel about this movie. It must be seen to be appreciated but it IS a cerebral movie. If you don't know what I mean by that then you probably won't appreciate the movie. I have found it in it's entirety online. Here's a link:
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Also Roger Ebert's review is exceptional: *Link*
Ebert mentions an essay on the blog of Matthew Dessem: The Criterion Contraption
Anyway, this is just a blog on how my mind skips from one thing to the next and the treasures I occasionally unearth. Enjoy.
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