Episode 38: St. Joan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Young Adult Movie Ministry

Details, credits, errata: This week we have the delightful Rob Weinert-Kendt, editor of American Theatre magazine and contributor to America, The New York Times, and many other discerning publications, and absolutely one of our favorite people. His terrific pitch was to watch Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent drama The Passion of Joan of Arc, one of many movies made from the story of Joan’s trial, largely because, as Rob observes, there’s lots of documentary material about the trial, notably the transcript, available in English here.

There are lots of Joans of Arc; Sam did indeed go to see the Manhattan Theatre Club’s terrible production of the George Bernard Shaw play with Rob, though he got the lead, Condola Rashad, mixed up with the lead from another bad Shaw production on Broadway, Sally Hawkins in Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the Roundabout. Poor Shaw. He’s a good playwright. Other notable Joans include The Messenger, starring Milla Jovovich and John Malkovich and directed by Luc Besson, his and Jovovich’s follow-up collaboration to their sci-fi flick The Fifth Element (The Messenger is not a success in any sense, but The Fifth Element slaps). Joan has been used by other playwrights, notably Bertolt Brecht, in Saint Joan of the Stockyards, which resets the story among unionizing Chicago meatpackers, and novelists including Terry Pratchett, whom you may remember from a few episodes ago, in his lovely Discworld novel Monstrous Regiment. Other filmed versions include George Méliès’ Jeanne D’Arc, which I’ll include below this paragraph on our website, and Das Mädschen Johanna, a Nazi version of the story. You can read Graham Greene’s review of it in The Spectator here.

Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. The Passion of Joan of Arc is in the public domain, and the image at the head of the page is from the film. All other material is copyright 2021 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson.

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