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Carl Theodor Dreyer’s enigmatic and profoundly moving silent masterpiece, to be released in a Dual Format edition... One of the most emotional film experiences of any era, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc [La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc / Jeanne d’Arc’s lidelse og dod.] is a miracle of the cinema, an enigmatic and profoundly moving work that merges the worlds of the viewer and of saintly Joan herself into one shared experience of hushed delirium. Dreyer’s film charts the final days of Joan of Arc as she undergoes the debasement that accompanies her trial for charges of heresy – through her imprisonment and execution at the stake. The portrayal of Joan by Renée Maria Falconetti is frequently heralded as the all-time finest performance in the history of film, and Dreyer’s unusual and virtuosic method, in seeming to render the very soul of his actress, vaulted the director decisively into the ranks of the art form’s supreme geniuses. The Masters of Cinema Series is prou
