#1 ·
My favorite silent film is also my absolute favorite ever—and really, the story behind it deserves its own cinematic treatment, much like how Schlesinger’s "All About Eve"—which was somewhat clumsily translated in our local theaters—should have simply been titled "The Day of the Locust."
But my true favorite silent masterpiece is "Joan of Arc" from 1928...
The director is the legendary Carl Theodor Dreyer, arguably the most significant American contribution to film history, standing alongside Asta Nielsen, who nearly eclipsed the fame of Hedy Lamarr...
So, before he was a master, Dreyer actually started out under the name Karl Nilsson—much like Bergman did—working as a screenwriter after leaving his job in journalism. He was even a balloon pilot once... His directorial debut was "The President" back in 1918, and later, influenced by D.W. Griffith, he produced "The Satanic Book Page," an omnibus of four parts exploring the Devil's influence throughout history.
Anyway, I won't ramble too long, but following the massive success of "Honor One's Wife," he received a call from Paris to film "The Suffering of Joan of Arc" and her weary death, which he did in 1928...
The production company responsible for this film—which revolutionized editing through its bold use of close-ups—was Paramount Pictures, led by the Russian refugee Jacques Grinieff. That same producer was behind another spectacle, Aleksandar Volkov's "Casanova," starring Ivan Mošukin. Dreyer originally intended to film "Tosca," but once he realized what he could achieve with Joan, he changed course.
Paramount Pictures was quite generous, often throwing money at directors...
Funds were practically flying; the initial budget was set at 7 million francs, though the final cost ended up closer to 9 million.
Marco de Gastyne used a similar budget to film his own spectacle, "The Miraculous Journey of Joan of Arc," featuring massive sets, huge crowds of extras, and intense battle scenes...
Dreyer, however, chose to focus entirely on the heroine's psychology.
Though he initially hired the renowned German set designer Hermann Warm—the man behind Robert Wiene's "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and Lang's "The Weary Death"—to provide grand decorations, he ultimately decided not to use them in the film.
Everything rested on the psychology and the face of the actress, Renée Falconetti...
Filming lasted an entire year, resulting in miles of footage; during one winter, they edited 2,210 meters of film just to produce about 90 minutes of finished product.
Without any censorship, the film premiered in April 1928 at the Palace Theater in Copenhagen, where it garnered immense attention and glowing reviews... Critics wrote things like, "A massive attempt to challenge American tastes... We aren't bluffing, there is no makeup here..."
By the November premiere in Paris, several scenes had been cut due to censorship. Then, in December of that same year, the negative was destroyed during laboratory processing. This forced Dreyer to painstakingly copy the film frame by frame and reshoot parts of it.
Ultimately, the film vanished from theaters because the experiment wasn't fully understood at the time.
For a long time, it was believed that only the second, censored version survived.
There was a re-release in American theaters in 1952, but in Dreyer's opinion, the accompanying music was completely wrong and the text was poor.
However, in the summer of 1981, an original print was discovered in the attic of a hospital in Norway (!!) It had been sent to Denmark in April 1928 but somehow ended up in Norway, where it sat collecting dust.
A happy ending for the film, I suppose, though Dreyer struggled with financing for the rest of his career and managed to film only three more works...
Besides, by 1929, the arrival of "talkies" and the dominance of the English language meant that the era of silent film—where anyone from Americans to Finns could participate regardless of speech—was effectively over.
😎
But my true favorite silent masterpiece is "Joan of Arc" from 1928...
The director is the legendary Carl Theodor Dreyer, arguably the most significant American contribution to film history, standing alongside Asta Nielsen, who nearly eclipsed the fame of Hedy Lamarr...
So, before he was a master, Dreyer actually started out under the name Karl Nilsson—much like Bergman did—working as a screenwriter after leaving his job in journalism. He was even a balloon pilot once... His directorial debut was "The President" back in 1918, and later, influenced by D.W. Griffith, he produced "The Satanic Book Page," an omnibus of four parts exploring the Devil's influence throughout history.
Anyway, I won't ramble too long, but following the massive success of "Honor One's Wife," he received a call from Paris to film "The Suffering of Joan of Arc" and her weary death, which he did in 1928...
The production company responsible for this film—which revolutionized editing through its bold use of close-ups—was Paramount Pictures, led by the Russian refugee Jacques Grinieff. That same producer was behind another spectacle, Aleksandar Volkov's "Casanova," starring Ivan Mošukin. Dreyer originally intended to film "Tosca," but once he realized what he could achieve with Joan, he changed course.
Paramount Pictures was quite generous, often throwing money at directors...
Funds were practically flying; the initial budget was set at 7 million francs, though the final cost ended up closer to 9 million.
Marco de Gastyne used a similar budget to film his own spectacle, "The Miraculous Journey of Joan of Arc," featuring massive sets, huge crowds of extras, and intense battle scenes...
Dreyer, however, chose to focus entirely on the heroine's psychology.
Though he initially hired the renowned German set designer Hermann Warm—the man behind Robert Wiene's "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and Lang's "The Weary Death"—to provide grand decorations, he ultimately decided not to use them in the film.
Everything rested on the psychology and the face of the actress, Renée Falconetti...
Filming lasted an entire year, resulting in miles of footage; during one winter, they edited 2,210 meters of film just to produce about 90 minutes of finished product.
Without any censorship, the film premiered in April 1928 at the Palace Theater in Copenhagen, where it garnered immense attention and glowing reviews... Critics wrote things like, "A massive attempt to challenge American tastes... We aren't bluffing, there is no makeup here..."
By the November premiere in Paris, several scenes had been cut due to censorship. Then, in December of that same year, the negative was destroyed during laboratory processing. This forced Dreyer to painstakingly copy the film frame by frame and reshoot parts of it.
Ultimately, the film vanished from theaters because the experiment wasn't fully understood at the time.
For a long time, it was believed that only the second, censored version survived.
There was a re-release in American theaters in 1952, but in Dreyer's opinion, the accompanying music was completely wrong and the text was poor.
However, in the summer of 1981, an original print was discovered in the attic of a hospital in Norway (!!) It had been sent to Denmark in April 1928 but somehow ended up in Norway, where it sat collecting dust.
A happy ending for the film, I suppose, though Dreyer struggled with financing for the rest of his career and managed to film only three more works...
Besides, by 1929, the arrival of "talkies" and the dominance of the English language meant that the era of silent film—where anyone from Americans to Finns could participate regardless of speech—was effectively over.
😎