The Passion of Joan of Arc

In association with Canterbury Film Society, Christchurch Art Gallery and Christchurch Arts Festival:

Silencio Ensemble presents live sound screenings of:

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

By Carl Theodor Dreyer

Friday August 19 and Saturday August 20, St Andrew's at Rangi Ruru Presbyterian Church, 7.30pm.

$20 - Tickets now available from Christchurch Arts Festival, book at www.artsfestival.co.nz/silencio

($10 for film society members, which only appears when you click to the booking page, so don't be fooled!)

Book early as seating isn't guaranteed!

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Made soon after Joan of Arc’s canonisation in 1920, this French film from 1928 starring Jeanne Falconetti is often marked as one of the highest achievements in silent film.

In 1430, Joan of Arc claims to hear divine voices of angels and has become a great threat to the English and their armies.

Dreyer has pared the film down to fundamental problems surrounding Joan’s story, depicting the needless destruction of one woman by a male religious institution whose adherence to its own power structures permits actions of great evil. Comparisons to the persecution of Christ are made throughout the film, which focuses entirely on Joan’s ‘passion’: the trial, where she is placed under interrogation by a panel of bishops and theologians in their efforts to name her a heretic, her persecution, suffering and death.

This performance, written for ten piece choir, cello, two flutes, sixteen tubular bells and drum, provides musical accompaniment designed to sit beside these images using space in a way that the film relentlessly refuses through its constant use of irregular angles and close-up shots.

Music by Chris Reddington, and developed by Silencio Ensemble and Silencio Choir.

This project has received vital funding support from Creative Communities Christchurch and Christchurch Community Arts Council.

For further links to the arts festival web page, please visit here: http://www.artsfestival.co.nz/show/63/silencio-ensemble.aspx

For a glimpse of shorts to the film, please visit here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLBn9KK2Ss0å

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