The Furniture: Taking Joan of Arc Out of Time

Our Production Design series by the brilliant Daniel Walber is finally back for another season. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail. - Editor

by Daniel Walber

Why make a new movie about Joan of Arc? What hasn’t been said? The first film about her was made in 1898 and there have been dozens since. Some of them are regarded among the best films ever made. Why bother?

A few years ago, Bruno Dumont chose to answer these questions with a heavy metal musical. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (2017) is thrillingly strange, anointing the dunes of Dumont’s beloved Pas-de-Calais with dancing nuns and sung revelation. The music lends an unearthly gravitas to Joan’s visions, similar to how Breaking the Waves (the opera) presents Bess’s faith in a very different light than Breaking the Waves (the movie). I’d have written about it, but there’s no furniture to speak of - the entire film takes place outdoors.

Not so with the 2019 sequel...

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Today in Showbiz History: Edith Massey, Notting Hill, Prince of Persia

by Nathaniel R

Happy birthday to any May 28th-ers out there. If it's not your birthday which of these events and people will you channel or celebrate today?

1431 Joan of Arc accused of donning male clothing again (GASP) therefore "relapsing into heresy". The heretic/saint has been portrayed in movies, tv, and stage, a bajillion times since. Condola Rashad is currently Tony nominated for playing her in "Saint Joan"

1888 Athlete Jim Thorpe born in Oklahoma. Became an Olympic gold medalist and actor and even got his own biopic.

1902 The Virginian by Owen Wister is published. The book becomes hugely influential in shaping the Western genre. It's later adapted into two silent films, four regular features, and a long running TV series.

1918 CENTENNIAL! Edith Massey is born in NYC.

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Women's History Month: Ingrid Bergman's Joan of Arc

For Women's History Month ocassional portraits of actresses portraying iconic real women. Here is abstew with Ingrid Bergman as film's favorite saintly female warrior. 

Born: January 6, 1412 (the exact date of her birth is not exactly known, but she stated she was 19 at the time of her trial)

Death: May 30, 1431. After being captured by the English, she was imprisoned and a trial before an ecclesiastic court condemned her with heresy for which she was burned at the stake. Legend has it that her executioner begged for mercy on his soul because he had just killed a saint. 

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