The maid of Orléans

I came across this quote in the BBC archives about the 17,000 year old art gracing the walls of the Lascaux caves; When Pablo Picasso visited the newly-discovered Lascaux caves, in the Dordogne, in 1940, he emerged from them saying of modern art, "We have discovered nothing".



Two weeks ago I watched La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc by film director Carl Theodor Dreyer in a Film as Literature class. Two weeks ago I got the wind knocked out of me. It was a short sharp shock to my imagination. I never saw it coming.

This movie crippled my fingers. This movie slugged me in the jaw. I’ve taken two aspirins and now I am healthy enough to tell my side of the story...




They say you never should bring up religion or politics in a friendly conversation. So what do you talk about in the company of enemies?

When asked by the French Ecclesiastical judges, with English soldiers leering over their shoulders, if she knew she was in God’s Grace; Jeanne d’Arc answered ” 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'

Damn good answer. She may have also mentioned that the English dogs will lose their dominance and the French will crown Charles VII king.



1431 was a busy year for France. 1928 was a busy year for film director Carl Theodor Dreyer. He worked La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc from the actually trail transcripts. Dreyer made a statement so strong, that he might as well as declared war. This is the loudest silent picture I have ever witnessed. Take a handful of actors and have them capture that moment in time. Fiercely.



Eighty-Two years later we have sound systems that can shake foundations with the sound of a pin dropping. We have created zoomed in visuals so seamless clear we can see a tear in the fabric of space. We have made our make-believe into our reality with computer-generated special effects. We have mastered our machines. Yet for all the modern technology at our disposal; nobody has committed a stronger statement in film since.

After the credits rolled and the lights came back on, I thought of today’s top contenders like Avatar, and muttered to myself "We have discovered nothing".