|
La vie merveilleuse de Jeanne d’Arc
Also known as La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d’Arc, fille de Lorraine in France; Dziewica Orleanska in Poland : [Saint Joan, the Maid]
(1929) France
B&W : [?] 16? reels / 4800 metres
Directed by Marco de Gastyne
Cast: Simone Genevois [Jeanne d’Arc], Philippe Hériat [Gilles de Rais], Fernand Mailly [La Hire], Jean Debucourt [Charles VII], Jean Toulout [La Trémouille], François Viguier [Brother Pasquerel], Daniel Mendaille [Lord John Talbot], Gaston Modot [Lord Glasdall], Choura Milena [Isabeau de Paule], Louis Allibert (Jean-Louis Allibert) [Rémy Loiseau], Georges Paulais [Nicolas Loyseleur], Pierre Douvan [Pierre Cauchon], Bernard Taft [a judge], Bernard Taft [a judge], W. Percy Day [a judge], Mario Nasthasio [Warwick], Jean Manoir [Jean de Metz], Marcel Soarez [an English officer], Souffrice [an English officer], Jean-Pierre Stock [Poitou], Jean Diener [Archbishop of Reims], Sora Starny [Gilda], Genica Athanasiou [the slave], Florus [Jean Lemaitre], Jean Dalbé [Joan's page], Mary Serta [the captive], Soyez [Xantrailles], Léonce Cargue [Jean de Luxembourg], Marcel Chabrier [Robert de Baudricourt], Henry Valbel [a dying soldier], Pierre Denols, Jean Poito, Dorah Starny
[?] Productions Natan and Pathé Cinéma and/or Rapid Film? production; distributed by Franco-Film-Aubert. / Produced by Émile Natan. Scenario by Jean-José Frappa. Art direction by Henri Bonnefoy. Matte painter, W. Percy Day. Cinematography by Gaston Brun. Camera operators, Asselin (Georges Asselin), Gondois (Henri Gondois), Walter (Ganzli Walter) and Jimmy Berliet [?] + [Lucien Bellavoine and René Colas]? Intertitles written by Charles Spaak. / Premiered 18 April 1929 at the Paris Opera. Released [?] 19 April 1929 or 1 November 1929? / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format and Hypergonar 35mm anamorphic 2.66:1 format. / The production is thought to be a French nationalist response to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s La Passion et la mort de Jeanne d’Arc (1928). The production was shot from August 1927 through August 1928 on historical locations, including the chateaux at Chinon and Pierrefonds, Carcassonne, as well as Aigues-Mortes, Metz, Vezelay, Strasbourg and Mont Saint-Michel (trial scenes). A few exteriors (the burning of Joan at the stake) were shot at the Joinville and Francoeur studios. Some sequences utilized the Hypergonar anamorphic lens system. The film was released in Finland on 29 December 1929. The film was released in Poland by Towarzystwo Filmowe ‘Star-Film’ as Dziewica Orleanska. The film was reconstructed and restored by Renée Lichtig at the Cinémathèque française in 1983-1986 from an incomplete 35mm nitrate negative and a condensed 17.5mm reduction print previously owned by Simone Genevois. A new restoration was scheduled to begin in 2012. / Silent film.
Drama: Historical.
Survival status: Prints exist in the Cinémathèque française film archive [incomplete 35mm nitrate negative, abridged 17.5mm reduction positive, 35mm restoration negative (3540 metres), 35mm restoration positives].
Current rights holder: La Cinémathèque française.
Listing updated: 24 December 2023.
References: Brownlow-Parade pp. 512, 516; Carr-Wide p. ?; Shipman-Cinema p. 105 : Website-IMDb : with additional information provided by Lenny Borger.
|
