The Passion of Joan of Arc
Dreyer's masterpiece in a cine-concert at the Auditorium of Lyon
Sunday, October 18 at 11am
Accompanied on the organ by Karol Mossakowski
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15 € / 13 € for accredited members
A world premiere of a previously unseen restored print on the occasion of the 120 years of Gaumont
The Lumière festival revisits the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer with an exceptional cinema concert: The Passion of Joan of Arc, a once-invisible silent masterpiece, superbly restored by Gaumont.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Lumière festival continues to highlight essential films from the débuts of cinema history in optimum viewing and acoustic conditions. The screening of The Passion of Joan of Arc will be a total experience at the Auditorium of Lyon. After The Last Laugh last year, we invite you to join us on Sunday morning for a cine-concert entirely accompanied on the organ. (The Auditorium organ is built into the theater, the only one of its kind in France).
In 1431, in the castle of Rouen, a shackled Joan is presented before an ecclesiastical court, servicing the occupying English. Joan faces the outrageous charges with disarming humility. Deemed a heretic, she is condemned and burned alive at the stake amidst a hysterical crowd...
In the stunning staging, the camera probes faces and eyes, disregarding the surrounding scenery. Dreyer multiplies close-ups of Renée Falconetti (who portrays one of the most deeply touching Joan of Arcs in film history) and produces a quasi-experimental film, bathed in the whiteness of the image with a hypnotic rhythm. Joan of Arc is not merely a film, but a meditation.
« If Dreyer is on par with the greatest of filmmakers in terms of language, he surpasses them with his words. And although it is futile and probably impossible to choose the second masterpiece of the cinema, there is no such hesitation in choosing the first. The Passion of Joan of Arc is the most beautiful film in the world. »
Chris Marker
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The National Orchestra of Lyon (ONL)
Heir to the Society of grand concerts in Lyon founded in 1905, the National Orchestra of Lyon (ONL) became a permanent orchestra in 1969 with its first musical director, Louis Frémaux (1969-1971). Since then, it has been administered and funded by the City of Lyon, which endowed it with a concert hall, the Auditorium, in 1975.
For over a hundred years, the ONL has been led by prestigious conductors, from Charles Munch and André Cluytens, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Marek Janowski, to Armin Jordan, Alan Gilbert, Georges Pretre or Neeme Järvi. Considered one of the finest European orchestras, the ONL has played alongside many world-renowned soloists such as Pablo Casals, Arthur Grumiaux, Wilhelm Kempff and more recently Yo-Yo Ma, Martha Argerich, Vadim Repin, Truls Mørk, Radu Lupu, Krystian Zimerman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet...
The Auditorium of Lyon
The enormous fully-prestressed concrete monolith, the Auditorium of Lyon is an impressive structure in the heart of the Part-Dieu neighborhood. Designed by Charles Delfante, urban planner and chief architect of the Part-Dieu, and by Henri Pottier, Grand Prix de Rome, the Auditorium was inaugurated on February 14, 1975, after over three years of colossal work that required nearly 40,000 tons of concrete and 830 tons of steel!
The Organ of the Auditorium
© David Duchon-Doris
Built for the World’s Fair in 1878 and the Trocadéro Palace in Paris, the monumental instrument (82 keys and 6,500 pipes) was a showpiece for the renowned French organ builder, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
Installed in Lyon in 1977 by Georges Danion, the organ was first entrusted to the talent of Patrice Caire. It then experienced a slow decline. The residency of composer and organist Thierry Escaich between 2007 and 2010 restored the instrument’s artistic splendor, displayed today in a variety of programs- orchestral concerts, chamber music, recitals, cine-concerts, educational concerts. The organ of the Auditorium is to date the only grand organ of a concert hall in France. Further restoration was completed in November 2013.
With the support of the Sacem
