La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

Jay Warren, organ

Directed by Carl Th. Dreyer • 1928 • France

Starring Renée Falconetti, Eugène Silvain, André Berley

Described by Criterion as spiritual rapture and institutional hypocrisy coming to stark, vivid life, The Passion of Joan of Arc is one of the most transcendent masterpieces of the silent era. Chronicling the trial of Joan of Arc in the hours leading up to her execution, Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer depicts her torment with startling immediacy, employing an array of techniques—expressionistic lighting, interconnected sets, painfully intimate close-ups—to immerse viewers in her subjective experience. Anchoring Dreyer’s audacious formal experimentation is a legendary performance by Renée Falconetti, whose haunted face channels both the agony and the ecstasy of martyrdom.

Chicago’s foremost photoplay organist, Jay Warren, brings all of the passion of the silent film era back to life with his original score for the silver screen. As a regularly featured photoplay organist for the Silent Film Society of Chicago, he has accompanied most of the great silent films throughout his thirty-year-plus career. He has been featured annually in the Silent Summer Film Festival since its inception in 2000. He was featured at the E. M. Skinner pipe organ for silent films at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel for twelve consecutive years. He also performs film accompaniment on the beautiful Letourneau pipe organ in the Crimi Auditorium of Aurora University.