One of the most famous works of silent cinema, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc is famous for the intensity of its images – in particular, its anguished close-ups on lead actor Renée Jeanne Falconetti, who plays Joan as she suffers through the trial that, in seeking to find her guilty of heresy, will send her to her death. Inspired by Dreyer’s vision, acclaimed LA-based singer-songwriter Julia Holter has composed an original soundtrack to accompany a screening of the film: a spellbinding audiovisual tapestry that she – along with regular musical collaborators Tashi Wada, Sarah Belle Reid and Corey Fogel, choir The Consort of Melbourne, and composer Hugh Brunt – has brought to MIFF for an exclusive live-score event.

Speaking to Holter, MIFF Publications Manager David Heslin asks about what draws her to Dreyer’s masterpiece, the role of music in film and the challenges of making such an ambitious project a reality.

How did you first encounter The Passion of Joan of Arc, and what do you find most compelling about it as a film?

I first did a live score for this film in 2017 (the proto-version of the current one). It was curated by a then series in LA called UnSilent Cinema – they came up with the idea of me scoring it; although I chose between this film and another one, so I had some say there too.

This film is an obvious love for me because it is stunning visually and full of iconic imagery, and the feelings that go along with it are so human and weirdly relatable. So it’s incredible to get to make music to, which is why so many people have. Also, I am pretty into medieval stuff, so it’s an opportunity to indulge in that. The cinematography is startling and beautiful and classic; it always feels contemporary somehow. The direction and acting is incredible: Falconetti and [Antonin] Artaud … you can’t take your eyes off them; they are magnetic.

You’ve worked on film and TV in the past, including composing the score for (in my view) one of the greatest films of the last decade, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always. What are some of the differences in how you approach a live-performance project like this?

Of course, one of the main differences is that Dreyer is not alive to comment on what I’m doing. I can only assume he would have disliked it as much as he apparently disliked the other scores for the film – but that’s okay, I guess.

While I actually love the limitations I usually have in film scoring – following a director’s and writer’s lead, and doing what they want – because it’s a contrast to my own recorded music, it is also fun to have free rein and get to make whatever I want in response to Joan’s facial expressions, which I would say are most of what I was thinking about; the score and, to me, the film itself really are kind of a manifestation of Joan’s emotions. We are experiencing her emotions through [the film’s] cinematographic and directorial style.

Another big difference between this project and other scoring projects I’ve done is that this one is a silent film, and so there is music constantly. I feel like a big part of my score for Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always was ‘harmonising’ with the diagetic sounds: the sounds of the bus, etc. In Joan, you have no sound to collaborate with, so you are left alone to produce the kind of ‘noise’ that I think we expect to experience in watching a film, so that it feels kind of tangible. I tried to bring in ‘noisy’ elements (in the trumpet and percussion parts, and even the chorus) to accommodate that. But it is really 1 hour and 20 minutes of music! Crazy.

Above: An abstracted collage drawn from The Passion of Joan of Arc  |  Header: Julia Holter

The Passion of Joan of Arc emerged right at the end of the silent era – which is to say, a time when live music accompanying films ceased to be the primary way people experienced cinema. What are your thoughts on the relationship between these two artforms, and on what music can bring to (or draw out of) cinematic images?

I think sound is a more important element for film than most people realise. So I think live music set to film could possibly create a kind of ‘3D’ effect for some people, where it feels almost like the film is happening in front of you, because sound plays such a big role in our experience of film. Likewise, I think people are going to see live music a little less than in the past – just like movies – and so, sadly, that dimensional experience of live music is increasingly rare, and might be pretty intense for people used to only hearing playback.

You previously brought this performance to audiences in the UK nearly three years ago. What was it like bringing it to life then, and have your feelings towards the film and the live-score project changed in any way since?

Our shows with Opera North in Huddersfield and London three years ago feel like yesterday to me. It was such a magical experience to work with a chorus for the first time: everyone was very easy to work with and professional, and somehow it came together, even though sometimes I feel like I’m verging on chaos. That something so big came together felt like a miracle. There were a lot of moving parts, and a lot of people who made it possible. The band I work with – frequent collaborators Tashi Wada, Sarah Belle Reid and Corey Fogel – are exceptional creative musicians, and Hugh Brunt is an unbelievable conductor.

Joan is a known classic film, and so truly great that there is a built-in mesmerising experience the audience member is already going to have. It’s hard to live up to the greatness of the film, but people seemed to have been moved by the sound as well. For me, performing this is so cathartic too – it’s one of the most intense times I have had performing anything. Not a whole lot has changed in the score since our last performance, but The Consort of Melbourne will have a very different sound than the Chorus of Opera North, and it will be a lot of fun to experience that difference. The Consort has been studying up on original manuscripts of the Joan-era chants that are set in the score, so I think we might have a uniquely medieval-sounding chorus for this performance, which I am so excited about.

Tickets for Julia Holter: The Passion of Joan of Arc are available for Monday 11 August and Tuesday 12 August at Melbourne Recital Centre. Book now.