JEANNE MARIE RENÉE

An installation by Martin Arnold

Austria 2002 l 12 hours l b/w l no sound

A project by AMOUR FOU Filmproduktion, Martin Arnold and VIENNALE

fotos

World Premiere: VIENNALE 02, Akademiehof (opposite the Secession)
De Vleeshal Middelburg 13.4.2003 - 1.6.2003
From June 2003: FACT arts centre, Liverpool

Jeanne Marie Renée undertakes the digital re-editing of a series of takes from "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc", Carl Theodor Dreyer´s legendary silent movie of 1928. Like the original, Martin Arnold´s Jeanne Marie Renée focuses on the expressive face of Renée Falconetti. But whereas Dreyer's movie presents the face of Jeanne d'Arc meticulously interspersed with shots of the prosecutors' faces, rigid and devoid of make-up, fragmented into brief sequences, dealing out Jeanne d'Arc's suffering in small helpings, so to speak, Arnold's Jeanne Marie Renée assembles the fragments of Falconetti's performance to produce one unbroken shot of several hours. The play of her features is stretched comparable to a Warholesque "interminable shot", whereas the faces of the prosecutors are omitted; they disappear in order to leave the cinematic space of the projection to Jeanne d'Arc's face.