The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra Accompany THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC March 19th

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) Screens at 7:30 Saturday March 19th at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University with live accompaniment by the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra and an introduction and post-film discussion by Andrew Wyatt, film critic for St. Louis Magazine’s Look/Listen arts-and-entertainment blog and the Gateway Cinephile film blog.

Silent films with live music! There’s nothing like it and St. Louis is lucky to have The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra here. For the past several years, The Rats and People have actively defined both the local music and film cultures of our city. In addition to its prolific composition and live performance of new scores for films of the silent era, the ensemble – equal parts indie/punk-stalwart and classically trained composers/musicians – have provided the soundtrack for many of St. Louis’ most vital and acclaimed locally-produced contemporary films.

Next Saturday, March 19^th  at 7:30pm, The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra will premiere their new score for the 1928 silent classic THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. It’s part of the eighth annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-produced by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series, which celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the early 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema. The event takes place at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University. A complete guide to the fest can be found HERE

Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431), who was granted sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920, has become a mythic figure in world culture. Key elements of this myth include her humble peasant origins, the “celestial voices” that inspired her to action; her controversial donning of men’s clothes; her courageous military leadership, and finally her capture by the English, her trial for heresy and her execution at Rouens in 1431. She has since been made the subject of innumerable books, paintings, poems, plays and films. Carl Theodor Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928), one of the most celebrated of all silent films, focuses on the last period of her brief life. The narrative compresses the twenty-nine sessions of the trial into a single day, encompassing Jeanne’s examination before the judges, the torments by the guards, her physical torture, her coercion into signing a confession that she later retracted, and finally her burning at the stake.

With its stunning camerawork and striking compositions, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC convinced the world that movies could be art. Renée Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances ever recorded on film, as the young maiden who died for God and France. Long thought to have been lost to fire, the original version was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981 — in a Norwegian mental institution. In the 2012 edition of Sight & Sound’s once-a-decade poll of film critics, “The Passion of Joan of Arc” was ranked No. 9 on the list of cinema’s greatest works.

Time Out London writes of THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC:

“Dreyer’s most universally acclaimed masterpiece remains one of the most staggeringly intense films ever made. It deals only with the final stages of Joan’s trial and her execution, and is composed almost exclusively of close-ups: hands, robes, crosses, metal bars, and (most of all) faces. The face we see most is, naturally, Falconetti’s as Joan, and it’s hard to imagine a performer evincing physical anguish and spiritual exaltation more palpably. Dreyer encloses this stark, infinitely expressive face with other characters and sets that are equally devoid of decoration and equally direct in conveying both material and metaphysical essences. The entire film is less moulded in light than carved in stone: it’s magisterial cinema, and almost unbearably moving.”

John Monaghan of Detroit Free Press wrote about THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC:

“Few films have earned classic status more than Carl Dreyer’s 1928 silent study of the 15th-Century teenager who helped lead French troops against the British only to be tried as a heretic.”

Mordaunt Hall at New York Times wrote of the film:

“It is the gifted performance of Maria Falconetti as the Maid of Orleans that rises above everything in this artistic achievement.”

Ken Hanke at Mountain Xpress wrote:

“Dreyer’s film remains among the most strikingly unusual cinema you’re ever likely to see.”

Don’t miss this event! Tickets are $12 general admission; $10 for students, Cinema St. Louis members, and Alliance Française members; free for Webster U. students. Advance tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets. A service charge will apply, and only full-price $12 tickets are available in advance.