I will make this brief, as it is a shameless plug for someone who has been dead for 40 years.
BAM, in their infinite wisdom, is having a festival devoted to the works of the great Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. Foremost among these works is The Passion of Joan of Arc. It is a silent film from 1928 about the trial and execution of (you guessed it!) Joan of Arc.
Some of you may remember a few months back that the site had a big discussion on the subject of film biographies. David Licata and I disagreed about Raging Bull (a viewing experience I liken to being punched repeatedly in the head), but we agreed the greatest film biography of all time was The Passion of Joan of Arc. I will actually go further out out on a limb and say that it is one of my top ten all time movies.
In fact, let me go further out on that limb and say this - Falconetti's Joan is the greatest single piece of acting I have ever seen. Stage or film. Ever.
She manages to make understandable what is perhaps the most fantastic and unbelievable story in history - that in the 16th century, a 16 year old peasant girl, who could neither read nor write, was given control of the armies of France and led them to victory.
And after you see this movie, and you see Falconetti, you will understand how.
It's showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with live piano accompaniment, on Friday, March 13th. I'll be there. Anybody else wanna come?
