Third Eye Film Society Forum Index
Author Message

<  Third Eye Archives - Specialty Forums  ~  Silent Movies

Nancy
Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:32 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4607 Location: Norman, OK
Syd wrote:
Oops. Euskara is Basque.


Interesting. I did not know that.

_________________
"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."

Isaacism, 2009
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Marilyn
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:35 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
There are a lot of fans of Carl Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc, the silent classic from 1928 that used the transcripts from Joan's witchcraft trial as its script.

You might find it interesting to compare the familiar Dreyer film with the unfamiliar Trial of Joan of Arc, a 1962 film by Robert Bresson, which also used the trial transcript.

TCM will be showing this overlooked film at 2 a.m. EST March 11 (you'll find it under the March 10 listings). I've never seen it, but I'm planning to.

_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
ehle64
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:24 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A
Sounds interesting, pokra.

For all you NYers: The American Museum of Moving Image is screening two Anna May Wong films this weekend, Song and The Pavement Butterfly. They are the Archival 35mm Prints from the British Film Institute with a live accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

_________________
It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is.
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
bocce
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:08 am Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428
Marilyn wrote:
There are a lot of fans of Carl Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc, the silent classic from 1928 that used the transcripts from Joan's witchcraft trial as its script.

You might find it interesting to compare the familiar Dreyer film with the unfamiliar Trial of Joan of Arc, a 1962 film by Robert Bresson, which also used the trial transcript.


i wanted to bring this up also. i've seen the bresson film (as well as PICKPOCKET which was reviewed by ghulam recently). as i recall, the film obviously owes a lot to dreyer without really expanding on the earlier treatment. the acting, as in most bresson films, is secondary whereas it's PASSION"s great asset.

i generally find bresson to be emotionally flat which i also understand is intentional, he being more concerned with ideas than character. TRIAL is an interesting film but suffers in comparison with PASSION.
View user's profile Send private message
Marilyn
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:02 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
In truth, I am a huge Bresson fan and don't like Dreyer that much. I do love The Passion of Joan of Arc, though, even if I do find it more than a little lurid. I'm very curious to see what Bresson, the quintessential filmmaker about religion, does with literally the same material.

BTW, I have cried at several Bresson films, particularly Diary of a Country Priest. I don't find him emotionally flat at all, just very French in his desire to let audiences find their own way in his presentation.

_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
bocce
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 3:42 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428
sorry to disagree but bresson is very much more conceptually than emotionally oriented, at least as i read him. i could, of course, be mis-interpreting but i don't think so.

perhaps it is that he deals with existential dilemmas and tries to parce them out somewhat methodically. one way or the other, i enjoy his films but i think you'll see a rather vast difference in affect btwn the PASSION and the TRIAL OF JEANNE D'ARC.

by the way, i'm glad you and ghulam like bresson when so many find him insufferable.
View user's profile Send private message
Marilyn
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 3:45 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
He is an acquired taste, but once you've acquired it, his films hold so much richness. I find that he reaches my emotions very deeply, but in a very different way than other film makers. The hopelessness of many of his characters' situations and their ability to go on in spite of everything touches me.

_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Nancy
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:37 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4607 Location: Norman, OK
I think Syd's planning to tape the Bresson version. I'm looking forward to borrowing it to compare with the Dreyer.

_________________
"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."

Isaacism, 2009
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
bocce
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:38 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428
i hope y'all got a chance to see the bresson last night...

after thinking it out, i still believe the dreyer treatment far surpasses bresson's rather dry adaptation of the trial record. there is passion in THE PASSION. there is only trial in THE TRIAL OF JEANNE D'ARC.

i am looking forward to your replies...
View user's profile Send private message
Marilyn
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:20 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
I'm afraid I must disagree. I found Bresson's version much more agreeable than the hystrionics of Dreyer's. I was very happy not to see a scene of bloodletting on Bresson's Joan. Yet the total consumption of her in the flames was such a beautiful comment on her passage to heaven. It was much better to me to see the division among the churchmen who were trying her, the fire of her patriotism and fervent belief in God than in the concentration on her suffering. One thing I have always disliked about Catholicism is its luridness, bordering on pornography in fetishizing suffering. Bresson let Joan be a heroine, not merely a martyr.

_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
bocce
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:40 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428
well... chacun a gout...

the reason i like the dreyer interpretation is that it is simply closer to the emotional truth. if you're willing to accept a banal reading of the trial transcript which sems not to affect our heroine in bresson's interpretation, what can i say?

obviously we're gonna disagree about this one...let's see what the other one (pray two) have to offer...
View user's profile Send private message
Marilyn
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:57 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
Banal is a judgment. I do not think it is at all banal. There is emotion communicated by all the participants. I don't find Bresson flat. I find him pure.

_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
lady wakasa
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:49 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
Well, I haven't seen the Bresson, but I hope somebody saw the Anna May Wong films! (Something I would've gone to, and Donald Sosin is an extremely entertaining and approachable human.)
View user's profile Send private message
Marilyn
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:47 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8210 Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
Hi Lady. Did you get a chance to see Shadows yet?

_________________
http://ferdyonfilms.com
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Joe Vitus
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:27 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Marilyn wrote:
One thing I have always disliked about Catholicism is its luridness, bordering on pornography in fetishizing suffering.


This is exactly what Camille Paglia loves Catholicism for.

I pretty much missed out on this part of the tradition, having been born at the time of Vatican II. Our churches and iconography become strangely Protestant-looking at this time.

I've never seen any Bresson movie. A big gap in my experience. I particularly want to see Lancelot du Lac because of a very beautiful still I've seen from the production.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher
View user's profile Send private message

Display posts from previous:  

All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 59 of 61
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 58, 59, 60, 61  Next
This forum is locked: you cannot post, reply to, or edit topics.

Jump to:  

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum