r/CinemaRetrospective

Carl Theodor Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928) was released in Paris, France, only 6 months after it was released in Denmark. This was due to the fact that the French Nationalists were offended because Dreyer was neither French nor Catholic. They were also upset by the rumour that an American Actress, Lillian Gish was cast as Joan in the movie.

Under the orders of the Archbishop of Paris and government censors, Carl Theodor Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928), received numerous cuts & Dreyer had no control over it. The only negative of Dreyer's version was destroyed in a fire at the UFA Studios in Berlin.

Dreyer then had to stitch together the movie using alternate and unused takes. Unfortunately, that cut too was destroyed in a fire at the French Studio where it was kept. Over the next 40 years a few different truncated versions of the movie surfaced much to Dreyer's dismay.

In 1981, a miracle occurred. When a janitor at the Dikemark Hospital mental institution was cleaning out a store cupboard, he found three film canisters labelled 'The Passion of Joan of Arc'.

These were sent to the Norwegian Film Institute, where they sat unopened for three years before finally being examined. Inside, they found Dreyer’s original 1928 cut, pre-government and religious censorship, fully intact.

("‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’: the silent masterpiece destroyed in a fire (twice)", Sam Kemp, Farout Magazine, 2023).

In Burning, the greenhouse monologue plays like pure psychological horror. Ben isn’t really talking about greenhouses. He’s describing things that are abandoned, unnoticed, easily erased, things no one checks on and no one mourns.

It’s hard not to hear something more human underneath. Not buildings, but people. Women like Haemi, isolated, without a support network, without anyone to mark their absence.

The kind who can disappear without consequence. Lee Chang-dong never confirms it, and that restraint is exactly what makes it so unsettling.

The horror isn’t in what’s shown, but in how perfectly the metaphor fits.

• Athan Montferratos •

Tony Scott on how much Hollywood hated "The Hunger" (1983) & how British filmmakers in Hollywood were criticised at that time:

"Interviewer: A lot of people have satirized the homoerotic elements in 'Top Gun' (1986). Was any of that apparent while you were filming?

Scott: No it wasn’t. Not at all. But with 'Top Gun', I had just done 'The Hunger' (1983), and Hollywood’s always trying to find the new kid on the block, and nobody’s seen a foot of film, and I was actually developing 'Man on Fire' (2004) 25 years ago, and they saw a cut of 'The Hunger', and all of a sudden my parking spot at Warner Brothers was painted out! It took me four more years to get another movie, which was 'Top Gun'.

Don Simpson saw [The Hunger] channel-surfing at 3 a.m. – I think he was high. And he actually saw a Saab commercial that I shot which is a jet racing a car, then he saw The Hunger, and him and Jerry [Bruckheimer] called me. Hollywood just hated that movie. They called it, “Esoteric, artsy-fartsy,” and we’re going to do a sequel to 'The Hunger'. I’m not directing it, but we’re doing it.

Interviewer: Do you have nostalgia for the way films were being made and the way the industry worked in the 80s?

Scott: The 80s was a whole era. We were criticized, we being the Brits coming over, because we were out of advertising-- Alan parker, Hugh Hudson, Adrian Lyne, my brother-- we were criticized about style over content. Jerry Bruckheimer was very bored of the way American movies were very traditional and classically done. Jerry was always looking for difference. That's why I did six movies with Jerry.

He always applauded the way I wanted to approach things. That period in the 80s was a period when I was constantly being criticized, and my press was horrible. I never read any press after The Hunger. Me, my brother, not Alan Parker, Alan Parker skated through. Adrian Lyne got slammed like I did."

(Tony Scott's interview with Katey Rich, Cinemablend 2009).

Malèna, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, is a visually striking Italian drama set in a small Sicilian town during World War II. The story follows a young boy who becomes infatuated with Malèna, played by Monica Bellucci, a beautiful woman who becomes the target of the town’s gossip and cruelty.

The film explores themes of desire, loneliness, and social hypocrisy. Through the boy’s perspective, Malèna is idealized, yet the reality of her life is harsh—she is judged, isolated, and ultimately victimized by a judgmental community. Tornatore uses minimal dialogue and powerful imagery to emphasize emotion over narrative complexity.

While Malèna has been praised for its cinematography and Bellucci’s captivating presence, some critics argue that it objectifies its central character by framing her primarily through the male gaze. Despite this, it remains a poignant critique of societal cruelty and the dangers of collective judgment.

Source:

Rotten Tomatoes – Critics consensus and reviews

IMDb – Film details and user reviews