Cat
Power performs
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Berbati's Pan, 231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579
8 pm Wednesday, May 12
$10
Laurie Goldstein performs The
Passion of Joan of Arc
Northwest Film Center at the Guild Theatre, 829 SW 9th Ave.,
221-1156
7:30 pm Thursday, May 27
$6
The timing and the circumstances are almost too surreal to
be coincidental. Think about it: How many opportunities does
one have in a lifetime to see a masterpiece of foreign silent
film from the '20s on the big screen, accompanied by live
music?
In the case of Carl Dreyer's seminal classic, The Passion
of Joan of Arc, try twice--in the same month, in the
same city and, strangely, in each case featuring live music
by artists playing under feline-inspired monikers.
The Northwest Film Center presents Dreyer's wrenching masterpiece
in high fidelity--using real film and a real projector--on
May 27 as part of its Icons, Rebels and Visionaries series.
Cellist Laurie Goldstein, of Seattle's Black Cat Orchestra,
performs the movie's original score at this show.
And then there's the off-kilter option, recommended for
those who've seen the film but wish to experience it in
a completely different context. For this show, head to Berbati's
Pan, where singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power,
performs her own material alongside the movie.
This event has its drawbacks. For starters, Marshall will
use video projection rather than film, which means images
will be a bit dark and not as crisp as those you'd see in
a theater. The real attraction, though, is Marshall's sonic
response to the film's overwhelming emotion. Her four albums,
especially last year's Moon Pix, contain haunting
tunes overflowing with naked, personal expression and stark
beauty. It's moody, late-night music--in short, a perfect
aesthetic match for The Passion.
Marshall hit upon the idea of accompanying the French martyr's
sad saga almost by accident with an impromptu rendition
in New York, but now she's honed the concept into a road
show pairing her own uniquely vulnerable stage presence
with Dreyer's intense retrofitting of history.
If you're a fan of cinema, you should try to catch both
presentations. With its staggering beauty and subtlety,
Dreyer's film is constantly rewarding. The film hews rigorously
to the transcripts of Joan of Arc's 1431 trial but condenses
months of investigation into one unbelievably tense, exhausting
day.
What's most striking is not the story but the way Dreyer
conveys it visually. He doesn't embellish Joan's legend
with gaudy imagery or turn the trial into a sweeping epic.
Instead, he simply locks the camera on Maria Falconetti's
pain-stricken, unwaveringly brave face, letting his lead
actress interpret unimaginable emotion and allowing her
to give one of cinema's greatest performances.
Dreyer realized before any other filmmaker the importance
of the extreme close-up, and he rarely deviates from his
attack. He forces audiences to confront Joan's helpless
situation, her physical anguish. Above all, he creates a
poignant portrait of suffering, one of the greatest examples
of cinema's ability to capture human emotion. It's a stark,
minimal and deeply moving experience.
As critic David Thomson notes, "All [of Dreyer's] works
are passions--in the sense of being like musical celebrations
of feelings, and in the sense that they are devoted to specific
human responses to situations defined by stories."
Thomson's analogy, equating Dreyer's technique to that
of an intimate musical experience, explains why the seemingly
odd union of Cat Power and The Passion is actually
quite fitting--one of those synergies that happen only by
chance. Marshall explained the project's origins to WW.
"Believe it or not, I had never seen the film before I
did the first performance," she says. "I was in New York,
playing at a college, and I also wanted to play at this
great, intimate place called Tonic. But the only day that
I was there was on a Sunday, which was the night they held
their film series, and they said I couldn't do it. I found
out they were showing The Passion of Joan of Arc,
which I'd always wanted to see, so I suggested playing music
alongside the film. They said OK. It totally happened just
because I really wanted to play that club."
Marshall performed her own material and covers by artists
such as Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones
("Satisfaction"). Because she'd never seen the film, she
just wrote songs out on a list, and as the film played out,
she selected material to fit the mood. Marshall says that
the process worked out surprisingly well.
"There's a part where the prosecutors say, basically, 'So,
what you're telling us, Joan, is that you hear the voice
of God?' and I had already begun playing 'Say' [from Moon
Pix], so that was kind of appropriate. Also, when she's
being tortured and mocked, I started playing 'Sea of Love,'
which got everyone laughing. I thought it was great because
it added some comic relief."
Marshall isn't afraid to admit that playing alongside one
of cinema's most acclaimed films isn't the main reason she's
bringing the show on the road. Anyone who has seen Cat Power
perform knows that Marshall has a terminal case of stage
fright. She says that the main reason for taking the show
to other cities is that it gives her more comfort on stage.
"The worst part about playing live is that people are looking,"
she explains. "It makes you so tense, and your muscles hurt.
But when this happened, all the lights were off and I couldn't
believe how relaxed I felt. I was looking out at the audience
and saw them looking at the screen, and it made me so comfortable.
"I guess ultimately this performance grew out of my therapeutic
needs."
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published May 12, 1999
|
