Joan Lecture Series A Success

The turnout was small, but participation was enthusiastic for the 3-session lecture series on Joan of Arc that I did for the Osher Institute in May.

A tornado passed over during the first session, but all we did was head for the basement and then return to the lecture room.

There’s not much that I enjoy more than talking and writing about Joan of Arc. For the series I made two powerpoint presentations and a viewer’s guide. The guide is called A Joan for All Seasons. It presents the historical record that exists about Joan and compares the known facts with tradition and cinematic interpretations. At the moment it treats the six best-known (in the U.S.) movies about Joan of Arc, but I may decide to expand it to include the Jacques Rivette two-parter with Sandrine Bonnaire.

Jacques Rivette's The Maid

Osher Lectures May 10, 17, 24

from A Joan for All Seasons

My viewer’s guide to six 20th century movies about Joan of Arc, A Joan for All Seasons, is finished. I’ll be making it available on CD to participants in the lecture series I’m giving for the Osher Learning Institute at the University of Arkansas. A print copy will be available later.

The Osher program will consist of three sessions:

Monday, May 10

The Historical Joan of Arc, 4-5:30 p.m. Fayetteville GC, Room 107: what is known about her from the historical record.

Monday, May 17

The Cinematic Joan of Arc, 4-5:30 p.m., Fayetteville GC, Room 107: how she has been portrayed in six 20th century movies: Joan the Woman (1918), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Joan of Arc (1948), Saint Joan (1957), Joan of Arc (1999), The Messenger (1999).

Monday, May 24

Showing of Victor Fleming’s uncut version of Joan of Arc, 2-5:30 p.m., Fayetteville GC, Room 107.

The contents of A Joan for All Seasons:

PART ONE: The Historical Joan

Introduction

Joan’s Personal World

Joan’s Political World

Joan’s Mission

Joan’s Military Career

Joan’s Last Year

Joan’s Afterlife

PART TWO: The Cinematic Joan

Overview

DeMille’s Joan the Woman (1917)

Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Fleming’s Joan of Arc (1948)

Preminger’s Saint Joan (1957)

1999 The Times

Duguay’s Joan of Arc (1999

Besson’s The Messenger (1999)

Conclusion

Movies About Joan of Arc

My fascination with the story of Joan of Arc (1412-1431) shows no sign of abating. When I finished my 2004 Ph.D. dissertation about her and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Keeping Her in Her Place: the Perpetual Imprisonment of Joan of Arc, I thought I was done. Then, in 2008, I returned to the subject in order to prepare the dissertation’s publication as Portrayals of Joan of Arc in Film.

Now, as 2009 draws to a close, I’m back to Joan. I’ve transferred six movie reviews from another site to this one. And I’m preparing another book, this time one not intended for an academic audience.

A Joan for All Seasons is a viewer’s guide to Joan of Arc movies, chiefly the six major Joan movies made during the 20th century by Cecil B. DeMille, Theodore Dreyer, Victor Fleming, Otto Preminger, Christian Duguay and Luc Besson.

The guide is arranged in two parts. Part One summarizes the facts about the historical woman known as Joan of Arc. Part Two describes six major films made in 1917, 1928, 1948, 1957 and 1999. The effect is to show that the Joan of the films owes more to the periods in which the movies were made than to the historical reality. Into every generation a Joan is born!

For brief reviews of the six films of my studies, see this new page: Joan of Arc Movies.

Copies of Candlestick Still Available

My juvenile time travel novels, The Secret of the Silver Candlestick and The Secret of the Painted Idol, are out of print, but a few copies of the first volume are available and can be ordered from Amazon or directly from me.

Here’s the back cover blurb for Candlestick:

TRAPPED IN A TIME VORTEX
Moshe and Kevin had no idea that the mysterious silver candlestick from the Holy Land would transport them through time–back thousands of years.
Life in the time of Moses is exciting when everyone thinks you’re princes from an exotic foreign country. But Moshe and Kevin quickly discover that they have troubles–big troubles. Like becoming slaves to power-hungry Lord Korah–the enemy of Moses and Aaron…And working in a foul-smelling tannery with a man who likes to chop up sheep while they’re still alive.
What can Moshe and Kevin do when Lord Korah forces them to join his evil plot to take control?
How can they stop him?
But most of all…
How can they get back to the twentieth century?

The books were published in 1984 and 1985, respectively. A German translation of Candlestick was published in 1990 as Das Geheimnis des goldenen Leuchters.

Now that I have fulfilled all my duties as teacher, mother and child, I’m ready to get back to writing fiction. I may even revive Moshe and his friends for another adventure, this time into the future.

See ALTER-EGOS for an explanation of the name on these books.

Starting Over

I’ve done it again–lost all the articles I composed directly into Wordpress. Just in case anyone else out there is as inexperienced as I am, here’s a word of caution. Compose your articles in your word processing program and save them to your own hard drive. THEN upload them to your Wordpress blog. I keep failing to heed my own advice and now I have to reconstruct several carefully written pages that I composed directly into Wordpress.