The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) & The Maltese Falcon (1943) . My re-watch of John Huston’s The Maltest Falcon (1941) was my fourth viewing, and each time I see the movie I have a different reaction. In 2002 I liked it, but it was all flash and style and made me feel smart. In 2010 all that had washed away and the pool was too shallow to drink from. In 2014 the film had improved significantly, and I delighted in its breathless filmmaking. Some of that stayed with me on this most recent outing, as I was struck by just how personal a film it must have been for director John Huston and his career, since he also wrote the script. This time it was fun to imagine Huston working behind the camera, like a Christopher Nolan, hard at work putting all the pieces together. Bogart skips around with a devlish smile on his face, playing the fiendish characters against each other in the journey to discover who killed his partner (the henchman play by Elisha Cook Jr was a surprisingly well written part for a “small” role). It’s fun, stylish, a classic for a reason, but nowhere close to the depths of greater classics like Casablanca and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. . The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) is one of the very greatest films ever made, coming from someone who thinks Citizen Kane is way up there. But Joan is much, much greater than Kane, delivering heightened spiritual emotions frame-to-frame. I defer further discussion of it to the essay inside the Criterion Collection DVD’s booklet. What’s to be said is better said there than here. The film’s recent-ish soundtrack (1995) is a modern oratorio called “Voices of Light” by Richard Einhorn. Its libretto is compiled expertly from a who’s-who of Medieval women mystics. The music is inspired, an absolute masterpiece which transforms and uplifts its subject even higher, and it works on its own as a Great Musical Work. This was my second viewing of the film. . #films #movies #themaltesefalcon #thepassionofjoanofarc #johnhuston #carltheodordreyer #reneefalconetti #humphreybogart #moviereview (at Nashville) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5oWfHmpf3b/?igshid=3budqppwsfpo
