Tickets on sale October on sale to FilmScene members October 14 at 10am / non-members October 17 at 10am.
New restoration with live score composed and performed by artist George Sarah with local vocalists and string quartet.
$40 public / $30 FilmScene Members / $20 students
"In a medium without words, where the filmmakers believed that the camera captured the essence of characters through their faces, to see Falconetti in Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is to look into eyes that will never leave you." - Roger Ebert
The Passion of Joan of Arc, a 1928 silent classic - newly restored by Janus Films and "still a transcendent masterpiece" (The New York Times) - comes alive with a haunting new score performed live by artist George Sarah working with a talented group of Iowa City musicians. Combining electronic music with sacred chant and strings, Sarah has crafted a moving and unforgettable experience.
Spiritual rapture and institutional hypocrisy are brought to stark, vivid life in one of the most transcendent achievements of the silent era. Chronicling the trial of Joan of Arc in the final hours leading up to her execution, Danish master Carl Dreyer depicts her torment with startling intimacy, employing an array of techniques - including expressionistic lighting, interconnected sets, and painfully intimate close ups - to immerse viewers in her subjective experience. Anchoring Dreyer's audacious formal experimentation is a legendary performance by Renee Falconetti, whose haunted face channels both the agony and the ecstasy of martyrdom. Thought to have been lost to fire, the film's original version was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981 in a Norwegian mental institution, heightening the mythic status of this widely revered masterwork.
ABOUT GEORGE SARAH
George Sarah is an electronic composer and multi-instrumentalist. Born in Seoul, South Korea, he moved to the USA at the age of five. He has garnered critical acclaim for his unique brand of electronic acoustic music, bridging the normally discrete musical worlds of electronic and classical as well as Americana and folk.