MacKinnon_FMST201_B_Assignment_1

The Contemporaneous Marketing and Reception of Dreyer’s By Lia MacKinnon FMST 201-B 40178659

Heralded to this day as one of the greatest films of all time, Carl Th. Dreyer’s La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928, U.S. premiere as The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1929) , entered the film canon almost immediately upon release. Critics mainly praised the innovative camerawork, heavy use of close up shots, the general tone of the film, and of course the performance of the incomparable Renée Falconetti, upon whom much of the marketing material is centered. Though the film received kudos for its “scathing realism,” this proved to be a double-edged sword, as certain critics found that it was unnecessarily intense, arguing that it did not provide sufficient escapism or entertainment value to be a success amongst general audiences. In the years leading up to the 500th anniversary of Jeanne’s death in 1431 , there was a revived interest in her life and her trial both in and out of France. She was only canonized by the Vatican in 1920 , a mere seven years before production began on La Passion. A few other films were produced around the same time in an attempt to capture the zeitgeist, most notably the largely overlooked French-German production La Merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d’Arc, fille de Lorraine, which was produced by Pathé-Natan simultaneously to Passion, and eventually released in April 1929 , only to be largely overshadowed by Dreyer’s piece. La Passion had its first public premiere in Denmark on April 21st, 1928, and was set to be released in Paris on May 2nd, as per

Danish newspaper BT , but the official Paris premiere would not occur until October. This was in part due to a nationalist campaign against the film and its director, with screenwriter Jean-José Frappa (who penned the aforementioned Passion competitor La Merveilleuse vie) quoted as having said “whatever the talent of the director (and he has it)...he cannot give us a Joan of Arc in the true French tradition ... To let this be made in France would be a scandalous abdication of responsibility” in January of 1927, before production had even begun on the film. The film’s first screening in France took place “in the famous cathedral of Notre Dame … early in February [of 1928] before a picked audience of church and civil dignitaries.” Despite the strong religious symbolism of the film, “ecclesiatical [sic.] circles in France [were] in an uproar.” Evidence suggests that sometime between this Notre Dame screening and the eventual public release, the church demanded certain concessions be made for the film to receive a public release: the sheet music from the October release of the film notably omits the scene in which the clergy attempts to blackmail Jeanne into signing a false confession. France was not the only place where Dreyer’s film faced censorship; the film was reportedly “condemned in its entirety by the censors of the province” of Quebec, though it did end up being shown in Montreal less than two months later.  

La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc was, however, banned outright in England, with The New York Times attributing this to the “scenes where Jeanne is finally led to the stake in the Place du Vieux Marché, Rouen,” being “agonizing in their remarkable realism,” and Evelyn Gerstein suggesting it was banned “on “patriotic” grounds because it shows the English soldiers in a none-too-pleasant light.” Dreyer’s direction and style, as well as Falconetti’s performance, received nearly universal praise both in Europe and North America upon release. It did, however, receive some criticism, with J. Bernard Brunius stating in an article for La Revue du cinema that the success of a film like La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc proves that “decorative pretension, artifice, dry-heartedness, technical skill, intellectual trickery, the torticollis of the camera, will always create an illusion” of poetics and depth, and that, simply put, he “does not like films that bore him.” Variety’s review of the film draws a similar conclusion on the film, calling it “a deadly tiresome picture” that “isn’t worth a dollar to any commercial regular picture theatre in the U.S. Unless the theatre is willing to rely upon the deceptive “Passion” of the title which is meaningless on the screen.” Poet and critic H.D. praised the film for being “remorseless, [and] poignant” in her review for Close Up, saying “Jeanne d’Arc takes us so incredibly far,” but follows up by asking, “having taken us so far, we are left wondering why this superb piece of dramatization take us further?” She goes on to ask “Must I

be made to feel on the defense this way and why?” Other reviews echo this sentiment, for example, a review for Exhibitors Herald-World, a trade journal, states “It has a heavy beauty which sends one out of the theatre staggering under what is almost a physical oppression,” maintaining that although “There is no doubt that … [it is an] artistic triumph,” it will not “inspire the average exhibitor who has a well founded dread of what, throughout the trade, are referred to as arty pictures.” Despite this spattering of middling reviews, the film was quickly canonized as one of the great films. Gerstein states in her review that the film is “a cinema masterpiece,” that “the very technique that Dreyer has evolved with diabolic skill, could not survive in different hands.” Interestingly, she also notes that “Fundamentally, the film is uncinematic, done in a succession of amazing close-ups.” Stating these new techniques to be “uncinematic,” while using overwhelmingly positive language, speaks to how innovative the film was. It truly broke the mold left by all prior cinema. An article from the Movie Makers magazine elaborates, “Although the closeup is not new, never before has a story been told solely through the emotions conveyed by closeups of the actors.” The French periodical Cinéa-Ciné pour tous pointed out the way Dreyer strips cinema back to its most raw and emotional form, instead of “imprisoning our imaginations in the period decor that will never quite be accurate,” to successfully open a window to the fifteenth

century through which we can be fully immersed. “The National Board of Review [had] placed “The Passion of Joan of Arc” with “The Birth of a Nation,” “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and “The Armoured Cruiser Potemkin,” as one of the four greatest films of all time” less than a week after the March 28th American Gala Premiere at the Little Carnegie theatre in New York. It was also featured prominently as a seminal work of French cinema in Paul Rotha’s The Film till Now: A Survey of the Cinema, released in 1930, merely a year after its U.S. release. Marketers were quick to capitalize on the National Board of Review’s declaration that the film was among the four greatest of all time. Invitations to see the film at the Momart Theatre in Brooklyn included mention of this praise, alongside two images of Falconetti, one shot from the film, and one of her in makeup and with longer hair, an image which had previously appeared as the cover photo of the first issue of Frances Cinémonde magazine. Indeed, most of the marketing material places this film’s star front and center, often with a crowd of overbearing clergymen subjugated to a corner of the advertisement. A striking image of Jeanne entering the courtroom at center frame with the backs of the judges turned to the camera can be found in the announcement for the French public premiere. A full-page ad that praises the film as “A Super Production…” and “A Distinguished contribution to the art of the motion picture” followed a similar formula, this time with a shot of the crowd of spectators from the scene of the execution in

lieu of the clergy. Exclusive pre-release stills from the May issue of Close Up, “from the personal collection of Carl Dreyer,” also emphasize the close up on Jeanne, putting her on the first page of the insert, with subsequent pages containing mostly wider angles of the rest of the actors. Finally, this tactic can be seen in Renée Péron’s double-grande and four-panel sized posters. It has been said that Dreyer “…learned much from the Russians,” referring of course to the fast-paced montage editing of his film; the same can also be said of Péron’s spectacularly colorful and montage-esque art-deco compositions, whose stark contrasts and exaggerated proportions follow closely in the tradition of their Soviet counterparts. La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc has been considered by some to be one of the greatest films of all time almost as soon as it was released. Though some critics cite it as being boring, or overly intense, and its release was marred by censorship issues, its lasting impact on film form can be felt to this day. The film’s proponents, both today and in the past, have praised Dreyer’s attention to detail, innovative close-up shots, and minimalist approach to set and costume design, all of which help to give the viewer the sense that they are in Jeanne’s shoes. This is of course bolstered heavily by the evocative performance of Renée Falconetti, upon which much of the films marketing materials focus.

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