October 6, 2015

"Dressing for being burned at the stake is never a good look."

A perfect comment, here.

ADDED: Leelee Sobieski actually played the part of Joan of Arc in a movie a while back. You can see what she wore to the burning at the stake here.

AND: The Leelee Sobieski "Joan of Arc" came out in 1999, but there are numerous movies about Joan of Arc. Many have seen the great 1928 film "The Passion of Joan of Arc," directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, but that movie is the 8th on the list of movies about Joan of Arc. Second on the list is this 1899 short film "Jeanne d'Arc," directed by George Méliès, one of the first color films. Watch it:

23 comments:

rcocean said...

When/where would a women wear something like that? Just asking.

Xmas said...

I always wonder what happened to her after "Mad About You" ended.

Phil 314 said...

Uh oh, she washed the whites with the colors.

Freeman Hunt said...

The clip was preceded by a commercial in Spanish for Crest whitening toothpaste.

Saint Croix said...

I think she's pretty hot.

If you want Joan of Arc, though, you got to see the original. Amazing! There is no movie that looks like this. It's a unique work of art, a true masterpiece. And they use the transcripts from her actual trial. The dialog is actual history. The visuals, though, are insanely cool.

(Watch it with the music, Voices of Light).

Ann Althouse said...

"If you want Joan of Arc, though, you got to see the original. Amazing!"

That's one of the great classics of film history.

But there is room for other versions of the life of such a wonderful historical figure. I have no idea how many of these are any good, but (via Wikipedia):

1898 Jeanne d'Arc France short film directed by Georges Hatot [14]
1899 Jeanne d'Arc France short film directed by George Méliès starring Jeanne d'Alcy [15]
1908 Jeanne d'Arc France directed by Albert Capellani, starring Léontine Massart [16]
1908 Giovanna d'Arco Italy directed by Mario Caserini starring Maria Gasperini, based on Schiller's play [17]
1913 Giovanna d'Arco Italy directed by Ubaldo Maria Del Colle starring Maria Jacobini [18]
1917 Joan the Woman USA directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Geraldine Farrar, with a framework set in the trenches of World War I [19]
1927 Saint Joan USA Directed by Widgey R. Newman, starring Sybil Thorndike. Based on a scene from Shaw's play. [20]
1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc France Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti. Review for the 2002 DVD release:[21]. Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the silent era, it was initially banned in Britain. [22]
1929 The Marvelous Life of Joan of Arc France directed by Marco de Gastines, starring Simone Genevois [23]
1935 Das Mädchen Johanna Germany directed by Gustav Ucicky, starring Angela Salloker [24]
1944 De Jeanne d'Arc à Philippe Pétain France documentary narrated by Sacha Guitry [25]
1948 Joan of Arc USA directed by Victor Fleming, starring Ingrid Bergman, based on the Maxwell Anderson play Joan of Lorraine [26]
1952 Joan of Arc (Hallmark) USA An episode of the Hallmark Hall of Fame [27]
1954 Giovanna d'Arco al rogo Italy directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman, based on the oratorio by Paul Claudel and Arthur Honegger [28]
1954 Destinies France a film in sketches directed by Jean Delannoy, starring Michèle Morgan [29]
1956 Jehanne France short film directed by Robert Enrico [30]
1957 Saint Joan USA directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jean Seberg, based on the George Bernard Shaw play [31]
1957 The Story of Mankind USA directed by Irwin Allen, featuring Hedy Lamarr in one sequence as Joan of Arc. The film is based on a book by Hendrik Willem van Loon. [32]
1957 The Lark USA live TV production in English of L'Alouette, starring Julie Harris, who also played the role on Broadway [33]
1958 Saint Joan UK TV adaptation of Shaw's play, starring Siobhan McKenna [34]
1960 Jeanne D'Arc auf dem Scheiterhaufen Germany movie for television starring Margot Trooger, another version of the Honegger oratorio [35]
1961 Jeanne au Vitrail France short film directed by Claude Antoine
1962 Procès de Jeanne d'Arc France directed by Robert Bresson, starring Florence Delay [36]
1962 Histoire de Jeanne France short film directed by Francis Lacassin
1966 Fall Jeanne d'Arc, Der Germany TV movie directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Kathrin Schmid [37]
1967 Saint Joan United States NBC television adaptation of Shaw's play, starring Geneviève Bujold

Ann Althouse said...

1968 St. Joan UK another television adaptation of Shaw's play, starring Janet Suzman
1970 Nachalo - The Début USSR directed by Gleb Panfilov, starring Inna Churikova, satiric comedy
1983 Joan of Arc UK directed by Gina Newson with commentary by Marina Warner
1989 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure USA Jane Wiedlin portrayed Joan of Arc, one of many historic figures transported to late-1980s Southern California in this time travel comedy. Memorable lines include "Who was Joan of Arc?" "Noah's wife?" and "Welcome aboard, Miss of Arc!" [38]
1989 Giovanna d'Arco Italy Verdi's opera directed by Werner Herzog starring Susan Dunn, based on Schiller's play [39]
1989 Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia West Germany, France Sprawling epic directed by Ulrike Ottinger, entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival [40]
1990 Jeanne d'Ark - visjon gjennom eld Norway television movie written by Juni Dahr and John Morrow [41]
1993 Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher Japan TV movie of the Honegger-Claudel oratorio (in French), starring Marthe Keller [42]
1994 Jeanne la Pucelle France directed by Jacques Rivette, starring Sandrine Bonnaire [43]
1999 The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc USA directed by Luc Besson, starring Milla Jovovich [44]
1999 Joan of Arc USA television mini-series starring Leelee Sobieski [45]
1999 Wired Angel USA experimental feature directed by Sam Wells, music by Joe Renzetti [46]
2004 Jeanne d'Arc France television production in ballet directed by Laurent Preyale [47]
2011 Jeanne Germany experimental feature directed by Shahram Varza, premiere São Paulo International Film Festival 2011

Ann Althouse said...

So... the "original" movie about Joan of Arc is actually the 8th.

Etienne said...

Pierre Delanoë song La demoiselle d'Orléans:

Quand je pense (when I think)
que j'ai donné (that I've given)
à la France (to France)
mon sang, ma liberté (my blood, my liberty)
...
et qu'elle m'a oubliée (and she has forgotten me)

Lance said...

Unskippable three minute Youtube ad means I don't get to see George Méliès in color.

rhhardin said...

Candide, What a Day, What a Day for an Auto da fe (youtube)

William said...

Marie Antoinette took care to keep separate and untouched a clean, white dress for her execution. I guess the white dress heightens the innocent martyr look. Also you don't want to show too much décolletage. In the movie, Joan looks properly dressed for her execution. It's amazing how little execution styles have changed over the years.

Lyle said...

She's way too thin, me thinks.

Paddy O said...

You can also add the key role Joan of Arc played in the original Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Her portrayal offered a sublime element to the film offering an insightful critique to the pseudo-religious elements of late 1980s culture..

Darrell said...

I see Laslo made an appearance in the George Méliès short, trying to take Joan into the house to try for a little anal,just before the 40-second mark.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The pose isn't helping LeeLee Sobes and she should have a serious talk with here stylist--that hairstyle certainly accentuates the size of her ears!

Nichevo said...

For more of this beautiful young lady:

http://tomandlorenzo.com/tag/leelee-sobieski/


They should just line up all these women of the haut monde, run them through a shower and dress them all in gunny sacks. Then order the line from hot to not. Miss Sobieski will be close to the front of the line.

Polish blood, naturally, and Swiss; and another example, alongside Scarlett Johansson who next comes to mind, of why it was so silly for Hitler to try to wipe out all those Jews. Of course an aficionado of the Munich Steamer cannot be expected to have a proper angle on feminine beauty.

The dress itself is quite puzzling, the comments there make reference to one Tilda rocking this look, did Tilda Swinton play a female Pope or something?

Nichevo said...

But who we should be discussing, is of course the legendary Maid of Orleans. Treat the God piece how you like, but there was a girl who never flinched.

sykes.1 said...

Leelee had a better costume in "Eyes Wide Shut."

Quaestor said...

Georges Méliès was typically Victorian in that he was an expert and reflexive maker and user of euphemism (much like certain supporters of a "woman's right to choose") so the death of Joan is just a billow of orange smoke that doesn't even stain her lily-white attire, smoke which lifts her to a Great Beyond of tedium and cliché. What we see is just what one would expect from the Belle Epoch. That 1999 movie with Leelee Sobieski, however, comes from a age of greater frankness, so it's naïveté is just disgusting.

A much better representation of the horror and brutality of Joan's execution can be viewed here, a clip from Otto Preminger's adaption of the play by George Bernard Shaw.

Roughcoat said...

I've visited Joan of Arc's family home in Domremy. A rather nice, comfortable, middle-class stone house, indicative that her father was a reasonably prosperous farmer. After visiting her house I walked up the hill in the field behind the village and went into the cathedral that stands on the spot where Joan had her vision. A beautiful spring day in the beautiful French countryside--sunny, cool, hazy-gold. I learned that Foch attended a thanksgiving mass at the cathedral shortly after the Armistice went into effect. It was standing room only and everyone was weeping with joy mixed with sorrow, a sense of triumph, and profound relief.

I found it all very moving. Since then I've read a lot about Joan. She was an extraordinary person. Paul Johnson in his book "Heroes" provides the best bio

Roughcoat said...

Leelee had a better costume in "Eyes Wide Shut."

My favorite costumes in that movie were the birthday suits the other girls wore.

You know what I'm talking about.

Saint Croix said...

Many have seen the great 1928 film "The Passion of Joan of Arc," directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, but that movie is the 8th on the list of movies about Joan of Arc.

Most art sucks and should be forgotten. When there is something that's amazing, you highlight it so the kids will watch it. Be wary of these people who say something is a "classic." Often what they mean is, it's really, really old. You don't get points for old age, Althouse! At least not in my class.

Here's what I wrote about A Trip to the Moon.

I kinda hate picking on this attempt to make art in 1902. It's like mocking the work of a six-year-old boy. On the other hand, it's really amateurish crap. (Sorry, Timmy).

Here's what I wrote about Broken Blossoms or the Yellow Man and the Girl

A lot of film people give D. W. Griffith props for being an innovator in cinema. He's an evolutionary step up, a cinematic frog-man, and we must recognize his contributions to the art form. Yeah, whatever. He can’t write. His screenplays are horrible. Insipid writing. Twain is flippin' over in his grave. It's not just the racism; all his characters are flat and boring caricatures.

I remember the stereotypical cartoons of my childhood--Pepe Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzalez, the black crows from Dumbo--with fondness and affection. Yeah, these cartoons are simplistic, reductionist, maybe even racist. But they are also human and fun. Griffith's racism is beneath childish cartoons. He is literally unable to create or suggest real characters. I think his racism is intertwined with his romanticism and his melodrama. He is unable to see people as they are, and utterly fails to create realistic and human people on the screen.

Even Griffith's historical importance is overrated. He made the first feature-length movie. Well, whoop-to-do. Everybody and his mother was making short films. Louis Feuillade was making 45-minute vampire movies, ten of 'em in a row. And Griffith makes one 3-hour monstrosity? That's the lamest contribution I ever heard of, the long-ass movie that makes your butt sore. Just another reason to spit when you hear his name.


So I want to make clear that I am not raving about Dreyer's movie because it's a silent movie, and therefore important. Most silent movies suck beans. I am raving about Dreyer's movie because it is one of the finest works of art ever made.