The Passion of Joan of Arc - A Historic Movie With a Fascinating History

The Passion of Joan of Arc is a movie that many may not have heard of, but it's a movie that you should definitely watch! This silent movie truly moved me when it was first shown to me in college in a dark and moody chapel. As the title suggests, this movie is about Joan of Arc, and specifically covers her last days. It's so much more than that though. It's also a landmark in cinema and and has an absolutely fascinating history.

Why this movie is a must see:
I have rarely been more moved by a movie. The use of very tight shots at jarring angles creates both a sense of disorientation and heightened empathy with Renee Jeanne Falconetti, who portrays Joan of Arc with an absolutely amazing performance. You feel Joan of Arc's suffering, fear, doubt, and faith as your own as you watch her. Supposedly, legendary director Carl Dreyer made her kneel on stones and repeat take after take to get her to exhibit the appropriate emotions. He also made her shave off all of her own hair in one of the final takes during filming. Supposedly, Falconetti, so traumatized by the filming of this movie, never acted in a movie again. The result is a performance that some consider to be the best in film history.

A fascinating history:
Almost as interesting as the movie itself is its past. The movie that has reached us today was largely unavailable for a rather large portion of its history. After its initial release in 1928 (met by rave reviews and dismal viewership) the original negative of the film was lost in a studio fire. Dreyer, determined to preserve his film, stitched together a new negative from alternative takes that were not consumed by fire. Unfortunately, soon after he reconstructed the negative, the reconstruction was also destroyed in a separate fire.

Between its initial release and today, various re-releases were issued. One release in 1933 was truncated and included a voice over by a radio announcer. Another, released in 1951 included a series of shots of stained glass windows which clearly go against that aesthetics of the film. At the same time, poor quality reels of the original film traveled among film clubs and hospitals, but many received the movie poorly as a result of its often extremely poor film quality.

Miraculously, in 1981, an intact and well preserved reel of the original cut of the movie was found in the closet of a Norwegian mental hospital. While this print (Now called the Oslo print) was not in perfect condition, it was carefully restored and the version we can see today is this one. Today you can purchase it on DVD as part of the criterion collection.

Truly an amazing movie with an amazing history.

Oliver Cromwell's Head - The Most Talked About Head in History?

I was listening to a set of lecture on British history and came across the most fascinating little nugget on Oliver Cromwell's head. Cromwell, who presided over the temporary transformation of England from a monarchy into a republic in the 17th century, seems to have somehow had his head misplaced. It wandered for almost 300 years before finding a permanent home.

What's really fascinating about all this is how a head could go around for so long and not be replaced by a plethora of fakes. I mean really, how hard would it be to fake a Cromwell head after three hundred years? Also, how did the value of Cromwell's head almost double in 12 years? I bet there are some investment bankers out there who wouldn't mind investing in Cromwell heads for that kind of return. Too bad there's only one.

The Aral Sea - The Amazing Shrinking Lake

Imagine if over the course of eighty years you saw lake superior become a tenth its original size. All of the wildlife in it would die and the land left by the receding water would become vast salt deposits. Shockingly enough, that's exactly what is happening to the once vast Aral Sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

What could cause this kind of shocking change in such a short period of time? The Soviet Union. Up to 1960, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest body of water on Earth. It supported a rich eco-system and a prosperous fishing industry. Of course all of this changed in 1918 when the Soviet Government decided to divert two rivers feeding the inland sea into deserts to support agriculture. (Kind of reminds me of the American Southwest) Apparently the Soviets were well aware of the effects of the river diversion, and they even wrote it into some of their five year plans.

Gradually the Aral Sea just evaporated away leaving vast salt flats. Today the Aral Sea has split into three separate lakes, two of which are too salty to sustain any kind of fish. Sadly, it has a surface area barely 10% of its original size. Still there is some hope for this body of water. The government of Kazakhstan has built dams in order to help increase the water levels in the North Aral Sea (One of the lakes that was created by the receding waterline) and in recent years water levels have actually increased while salinity has fallen.

What is truly stunning about this story is how human actions can have such a profound and rapid impact on the environment. We see all sorts of environmental changes taking place all the time but rarely do we see such a stark example of what humans are truly capable of doing to the world in just a few decades.

Still interested? Watch this fantastic segment about the Aral Sea from Australian TV. A lot of haunting scenery here.

A fascinating article on using Muon detectors to reveal the secrets of buried Mayan temples.