Martin Arnold made his experimental film Jeanne especially for De Vleeshal. Jeanne is an adaptation of Carl Thomas Dryer’s 1928 film classic The Passion of Joan of Arc, starring Renée Falconetti.
Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Martin Arnold’s Jeanne is a digital adaptation of the trial scene from Carl Thomas Dreyer`s The Passion of Joan of Arc. In the original, Jeanne’s suffering is shown bit by bit. Close ups of her face, that clearly betrays the powerful emotions by which she is overcome during the trial, are intercut with images of the prosecutor.
These images of the prosecutor were deleted by Martin Arnold. His Jeanne is a montage of actress Renée Falconetti`s dramatic facial expressions. This endless sequence evolves over time: towards the end of its showing in De Vleeshal Jeanne’s tears flowed ever more copiously.
The impact of Jeane’s suffering was further intensified by the enormous projection screen (7,2 by 5,4 metres) on which the film was shown and by the dramatic Gothic architecture of De Vleeshal. Here, Jeanne seemed to be forever trapped in the cinematic space of the projection.
The presentation highlighting Martin Arnold was the fourth in a series of Vleeshal projects about new developments in the field of sound and image. Whilst the Martin Arnold exhibition centred around cinema; Generating Live (2000) by (among others) VJ and artist Geert Mul and musician Speedy J revolved around VJ-ing and club culture. The relationship between art and music video was an important element in music video maker and artist Chris Cunningham’s flex (2001); new developments in computer generated imagery was so in artist and computer programmer Lucas van der Velden’s 0010 (2001).
