Part IV. Joan on Film: The Small Screen
May. 31st, 2005 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ealgylden(Part I. Joan on Film: In the Beginning)
(Part II. Joan on Film: The Middle Age)
(Part III. Joan on Film: Latter Days)
And to finish, a few of Joan's appearances in TV shows.
Forever Knight, "For I Have Sinned" (1992), Christina Cox:
"If there is a god, must it be sane?"
Hee, Christina Cox! Yay Canada! The timing of my rewatch of the episode couldn't have been funnier, since when I tossed in the ep., I'd just seen Christina as a cutthroat executive (on Eyes), a dominatrix (on House) and a highway patrol officer (on Numbers), all in a space of about three weeks. There's some cognitive dissonance for you. Anyway. Christina's Joan is pretty good, actually, albeit uneven. While trying to track down a killer who's preying on "sinful" church-going women, Nick mopes about what a terrible (non)person he was back in his wild and crazy fangy days, and reminisces about meeting Joan. Pretty standard FK stuff (made prettier by an appearance by a baby Michael McManus as a tormented priest. Cute as a dead guy on Lexx [oh shush], so much cuter as Father Whatawaste). We get three meetings with Joan at different points in her journey, and IMO the most convincing and interesting of these is the first, when she's still the untried, unknown peasant visionary. She's cute and full of yummy blood, so Nick tries a bit of seduction (and wouldn't it have been a trip if he'd vamped her? Vampire Joan! Keen!), but Joan has both village lore and divinely-blessed vision on her side. She knows him for what he is, and has no fear of him. Christina's accent is a bit odd, but she manages to seem both sheltered and steely, with sad, serious eyes and a set jaw. This first flashback is actually one of the better performances I've seen from her. I buy it when she says things like, "You, who choose to live forever, live in constant feat of death. I do not. I will pray for you, Nicholas. I will pray for us both."
Unfortunately, she's not quite as convincing as a warrior or a martyr. In the second flashback, Nick comes across her armored and praying, and maybe it's because the show's low budget means that her armor isn't that good, or maybe it's the cramped blocking of the scene, or Nick's poufy hair or something else, but for some reason, the scene lacks that ring of conviction that the first had. Nick comments that her former fearlessness in the face of death is absent, and her presence does seem... diluted, so maybe that's it. Anyway, her conversation with Nick characterizes her mission as religious to the exclusion of its patriotic/monarchistic or other aspects. It's his flashback, after all, and that's his concern (as a Crusader, a damned vampire, a modern detective hunting a religiously-motivated killer, whatever). In the third flashback, Nick watches her at the stake, and she takes a moment for more chit-chat on death and the fear thereof. Not that it matters, considering the distractingly goofy bald cap poor Christina is stuck wearing. Too funny. And it turns out that it's Nick who holds up the cross for her to look at as she dies. Heh. Of course. Meanwhile, in the present, Natalie is very impressed that Nick has a "souvenir of Joan" cross in his collection of historical knick-knacks. Amazing that it's in such great shape, considering.
Christina's Joan turns up in two more FK episodes, "Dying to Know You" and "Faithful Followers," but alas, they linger still on my Netflix queue, and I've long since forgotten what I thought of them the first time around. Something to look forward to.
The Simpsons, "Tales from the Public Domain" (2002), Lisa Simpson:
"It's easier to chew than that Bambi videotape."
The Simpsons take on the Odyssey, Joan and Hamlet in one of the brighter spots in a weak season (the 13th). Somehow my copy of this got taped over, which is annoying. Hmph. Anyway, God speaks directly to Lisa/Joan, in the voice of Kang or Kodos, I can never remember which is which, and at His command she takes up the sword to place Milhouse/Charles on the throne. King Milhouse is rather smitten, but according to Joan, "God says [they] should just be friends." The Simpsons is that extremely rare version of her story in which Joan actually kills (Lisa has some stifled rage issues, no doubt), and she leads her army quite well until she's captured by the English. Well, the Scottish. Willie, actually. I love that bit. "You can’t stop me! I WAS SENT... BY GOD!" (Willie stuffs her in a sack) "I want my mommy!" Hee! And awww. She's put on trial and God testifies (heh), but she's still sentenced to burn. Luckily for the pretty unhappy Lisa, Marge grabs the book and fixes the ending so that Joan is rescued by Lancelot, and they ride off to get married and live in a spaceship. So, um, not the most accurate version ever. But you know, I've seen worse.
My favorite part-
Bart (in a low, "God" voice): Joan, give me your dessert!
Lisa/Joan: C'mon, that was just you, Bart.
God: JOAN, GIVE ME YOUR DESSERT!
Lisa/Joan: Yes, sir! (and her dessert flies off. Ha!)
Joan of Arcadia, "Pilot," "Saint Joan," and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (2003-2005), no actress:
"Are you ready, girl warrior?"
Joan of Arc never appears as living person on Joan of Arcadia, but her life, deeds and image linger in the background and are explicitly referred to on several occasions. The two Joans are part of the same tapestry, though one would hope, for Joan Girardi's sake, that their threads are not entirely parallel.
In this blather I've been referring to Joan of Arc as "Joan," but for clarity and because I'm lazy and have done a lot of typing by now, for this part I'm going to call Joan Girardi "Joan" and switch to "Jehanne" for Joan of Arc.
The pilot episode of JoA opens with a metaphor made literal. Joan the future visionary sleeps, restless and dreaming, until God calls her by name and she awakes. Nice, and vaguely creepy, which is also nice. Throughout the episode, God pursues Joan with a (relatively) subtle mix of friendly seduction, cajoling and commands, and Joan does try to resist. Eventually, however, her initial response ("Don't ever talk to me again.") softens, because she "has a feeling." For whatever reason, she decides to obey her first command, to get a job, and it's while she's at work that Jehanne first appears, as a trio of book illustrations. Two are of Jehanne the Soldier, a medieval illumination of her with long hair and drawn sword, and an early 20th c. sculpture of her looking solemn and stern in armor, with her hands folded in prayer or entreaty. The third illustration is a highly romanticized, slightly schlocky vision of Jehanne at the stake, engulfed in crimson flames and reaching toward heaven (an almost identical image appears on the original cover of the "Tower of Song" Leonard Cohen tribute album, though unfortunately the current cover is different [and ugly]. Leonard Cohen, of course, wrote a song called "Joan of Arc." Which doesn't appear on "Tower of Song." Go figure). Joan finds only Jehanne as Warrior and Martyr, and no images of Jehanne the regular girl or Jehanne the visionary, either of which would relate more directly to her own situation. Instead she gets the mission and the cost without any comfort. Joan is not exactly Jehanne, but the connection between them isn't a reassuring one.
The linkages are made more explicit in "Saint Joan," when the subject of Jehanne arises in Joan's history class. She's utterly uninvolved in her studies until her teacher gets to "the peasant girl who talked to God, or so the legend says." That, in combination with her history teacher's diagnosis of Jehanne as a "paranoid schizophrenic with a messianic complex," catches her interest, though she's understandably not pleased about the crazy thing. She spends the rest of the episode trying to find someone who can reassure her that Jehanne wasn't insane. Grace takes the woman's studies approach: "Joan of Arc was, like, the girl warrior. Strapped on chain mail and led men into battle. Naturally they burned her at the stake." Sammy the bookstore owner is impressed by Jehanne's accomplishments, but he "tend[s] to avoid people who talk to God." Even her family seems to vote for a mentally-ill Jehanne. Poor Joan. All she want is for someone to assure her that Jehanne was sane, that she is sane, and as she hunts the conflict with her teacher escalates until she ends up the figurehead for a revolution she doesn't recognize, with a captain (Grace) she can't control, and no good ending in sight. But that's the point, as God shows up to tell her, "Here's the thing you need to learn from the martyrs, Joan. They did it the hard way. That's what I'm asking of you." And that's what makes me nervous, as a viewer who cares about these characters. Here the hard way just means letting Price win, retaking a test and having her friends mad at her, but with the introduction of Ryan Hunter and the events of "Something Wicked This Way Comes," Joan will soon be swimming in deeper waters.
God has always spoken to Joan directly, but by "Something Wicked This Way Comes," she has gained a Voice of her own, her late friend Judith. Jehanne's Voices came to her in prison and promised her a great victory; Judith appears to tell Joan that she's soon to be tested and to be ready, and that "it's all true, and [she's] not alone." Joan has been a faithful servant but a fractious one. She insists that she's not ready, that she's not the one, despite being the child of "an avenger and a visionary." And really, who can blame her? Yes, she's safe from joining Jehanne on the pyre, but the threat of "massive doses of thorazine" appeared as early as the second episode, and indeed the second season opens with her newly freed from "crazy camp." She knows the mission and the cost, and she has learned from the martyrs. And with Hunter having money, social standing, spiritual insight and temporal authority on his side, she's right to be afraid. As she cries to God: "I have no weapons! Other people who fought back, you know, the other Joan? She had an army, okay? I don't have anything like that! Where's my army?" God doesn't point out that Jehanne's army didn't save her, or that martyrdom could be interpreted as a "great victory" (not so comforting if you're the one facing it, I imagine), and instead just looks at her friends and loved ones. "Yeah, so basically I'm on my own," Joan answers. "You have everything you need, Joan," God replies as She leaves. Joan is left alone on the eve of battle, armed with weapons she doesn't fully understand. How closely will her fate mirror her predecessor's? We'll never know. But one hopes she'll be able to take the sweet from Jehanne's story, and leave the gall.
The end. Back to real life tomorrow! Um, yay?
(Part II. Joan on Film: The Middle Age)
(Part III. Joan on Film: Latter Days)
And to finish, a few of Joan's appearances in TV shows.
Forever Knight, "For I Have Sinned" (1992), Christina Cox:
"If there is a god, must it be sane?"
Hee, Christina Cox! Yay Canada! The timing of my rewatch of the episode couldn't have been funnier, since when I tossed in the ep., I'd just seen Christina as a cutthroat executive (on Eyes), a dominatrix (on House) and a highway patrol officer (on Numbers), all in a space of about three weeks. There's some cognitive dissonance for you. Anyway. Christina's Joan is pretty good, actually, albeit uneven. While trying to track down a killer who's preying on "sinful" church-going women, Nick mopes about what a terrible (non)person he was back in his wild and crazy fangy days, and reminisces about meeting Joan. Pretty standard FK stuff (made prettier by an appearance by a baby Michael McManus as a tormented priest. Cute as a dead guy on Lexx [oh shush], so much cuter as Father Whatawaste). We get three meetings with Joan at different points in her journey, and IMO the most convincing and interesting of these is the first, when she's still the untried, unknown peasant visionary. She's cute and full of yummy blood, so Nick tries a bit of seduction (and wouldn't it have been a trip if he'd vamped her? Vampire Joan! Keen!), but Joan has both village lore and divinely-blessed vision on her side. She knows him for what he is, and has no fear of him. Christina's accent is a bit odd, but she manages to seem both sheltered and steely, with sad, serious eyes and a set jaw. This first flashback is actually one of the better performances I've seen from her. I buy it when she says things like, "You, who choose to live forever, live in constant feat of death. I do not. I will pray for you, Nicholas. I will pray for us both."
Unfortunately, she's not quite as convincing as a warrior or a martyr. In the second flashback, Nick comes across her armored and praying, and maybe it's because the show's low budget means that her armor isn't that good, or maybe it's the cramped blocking of the scene, or Nick's poufy hair or something else, but for some reason, the scene lacks that ring of conviction that the first had. Nick comments that her former fearlessness in the face of death is absent, and her presence does seem... diluted, so maybe that's it. Anyway, her conversation with Nick characterizes her mission as religious to the exclusion of its patriotic/monarchistic or other aspects. It's his flashback, after all, and that's his concern (as a Crusader, a damned vampire, a modern detective hunting a religiously-motivated killer, whatever). In the third flashback, Nick watches her at the stake, and she takes a moment for more chit-chat on death and the fear thereof. Not that it matters, considering the distractingly goofy bald cap poor Christina is stuck wearing. Too funny. And it turns out that it's Nick who holds up the cross for her to look at as she dies. Heh. Of course. Meanwhile, in the present, Natalie is very impressed that Nick has a "souvenir of Joan" cross in his collection of historical knick-knacks. Amazing that it's in such great shape, considering.
Christina's Joan turns up in two more FK episodes, "Dying to Know You" and "Faithful Followers," but alas, they linger still on my Netflix queue, and I've long since forgotten what I thought of them the first time around. Something to look forward to.
The Simpsons, "Tales from the Public Domain" (2002), Lisa Simpson:
"It's easier to chew than that Bambi videotape."
The Simpsons take on the Odyssey, Joan and Hamlet in one of the brighter spots in a weak season (the 13th). Somehow my copy of this got taped over, which is annoying. Hmph. Anyway, God speaks directly to Lisa/Joan, in the voice of Kang or Kodos, I can never remember which is which, and at His command she takes up the sword to place Milhouse/Charles on the throne. King Milhouse is rather smitten, but according to Joan, "God says [they] should just be friends." The Simpsons is that extremely rare version of her story in which Joan actually kills (Lisa has some stifled rage issues, no doubt), and she leads her army quite well until she's captured by the English. Well, the Scottish. Willie, actually. I love that bit. "You can’t stop me! I WAS SENT... BY GOD!" (Willie stuffs her in a sack) "I want my mommy!" Hee! And awww. She's put on trial and God testifies (heh), but she's still sentenced to burn. Luckily for the pretty unhappy Lisa, Marge grabs the book and fixes the ending so that Joan is rescued by Lancelot, and they ride off to get married and live in a spaceship. So, um, not the most accurate version ever. But you know, I've seen worse.
My favorite part-
Bart (in a low, "God" voice): Joan, give me your dessert!
Lisa/Joan: C'mon, that was just you, Bart.
God: JOAN, GIVE ME YOUR DESSERT!
Lisa/Joan: Yes, sir! (and her dessert flies off. Ha!)
Joan of Arcadia, "Pilot," "Saint Joan," and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (2003-2005), no actress:
"Are you ready, girl warrior?"
Joan of Arc never appears as living person on Joan of Arcadia, but her life, deeds and image linger in the background and are explicitly referred to on several occasions. The two Joans are part of the same tapestry, though one would hope, for Joan Girardi's sake, that their threads are not entirely parallel.
In this blather I've been referring to Joan of Arc as "Joan," but for clarity and because I'm lazy and have done a lot of typing by now, for this part I'm going to call Joan Girardi "Joan" and switch to "Jehanne" for Joan of Arc.
The pilot episode of JoA opens with a metaphor made literal. Joan the future visionary sleeps, restless and dreaming, until God calls her by name and she awakes. Nice, and vaguely creepy, which is also nice. Throughout the episode, God pursues Joan with a (relatively) subtle mix of friendly seduction, cajoling and commands, and Joan does try to resist. Eventually, however, her initial response ("Don't ever talk to me again.") softens, because she "has a feeling." For whatever reason, she decides to obey her first command, to get a job, and it's while she's at work that Jehanne first appears, as a trio of book illustrations. Two are of Jehanne the Soldier, a medieval illumination of her with long hair and drawn sword, and an early 20th c. sculpture of her looking solemn and stern in armor, with her hands folded in prayer or entreaty. The third illustration is a highly romanticized, slightly schlocky vision of Jehanne at the stake, engulfed in crimson flames and reaching toward heaven (an almost identical image appears on the original cover of the "Tower of Song" Leonard Cohen tribute album, though unfortunately the current cover is different [and ugly]. Leonard Cohen, of course, wrote a song called "Joan of Arc." Which doesn't appear on "Tower of Song." Go figure). Joan finds only Jehanne as Warrior and Martyr, and no images of Jehanne the regular girl or Jehanne the visionary, either of which would relate more directly to her own situation. Instead she gets the mission and the cost without any comfort. Joan is not exactly Jehanne, but the connection between them isn't a reassuring one.
The linkages are made more explicit in "Saint Joan," when the subject of Jehanne arises in Joan's history class. She's utterly uninvolved in her studies until her teacher gets to "the peasant girl who talked to God, or so the legend says." That, in combination with her history teacher's diagnosis of Jehanne as a "paranoid schizophrenic with a messianic complex," catches her interest, though she's understandably not pleased about the crazy thing. She spends the rest of the episode trying to find someone who can reassure her that Jehanne wasn't insane. Grace takes the woman's studies approach: "Joan of Arc was, like, the girl warrior. Strapped on chain mail and led men into battle. Naturally they burned her at the stake." Sammy the bookstore owner is impressed by Jehanne's accomplishments, but he "tend[s] to avoid people who talk to God." Even her family seems to vote for a mentally-ill Jehanne. Poor Joan. All she want is for someone to assure her that Jehanne was sane, that she is sane, and as she hunts the conflict with her teacher escalates until she ends up the figurehead for a revolution she doesn't recognize, with a captain (Grace) she can't control, and no good ending in sight. But that's the point, as God shows up to tell her, "Here's the thing you need to learn from the martyrs, Joan. They did it the hard way. That's what I'm asking of you." And that's what makes me nervous, as a viewer who cares about these characters. Here the hard way just means letting Price win, retaking a test and having her friends mad at her, but with the introduction of Ryan Hunter and the events of "Something Wicked This Way Comes," Joan will soon be swimming in deeper waters.
God has always spoken to Joan directly, but by "Something Wicked This Way Comes," she has gained a Voice of her own, her late friend Judith. Jehanne's Voices came to her in prison and promised her a great victory; Judith appears to tell Joan that she's soon to be tested and to be ready, and that "it's all true, and [she's] not alone." Joan has been a faithful servant but a fractious one. She insists that she's not ready, that she's not the one, despite being the child of "an avenger and a visionary." And really, who can blame her? Yes, she's safe from joining Jehanne on the pyre, but the threat of "massive doses of thorazine" appeared as early as the second episode, and indeed the second season opens with her newly freed from "crazy camp." She knows the mission and the cost, and she has learned from the martyrs. And with Hunter having money, social standing, spiritual insight and temporal authority on his side, she's right to be afraid. As she cries to God: "I have no weapons! Other people who fought back, you know, the other Joan? She had an army, okay? I don't have anything like that! Where's my army?" God doesn't point out that Jehanne's army didn't save her, or that martyrdom could be interpreted as a "great victory" (not so comforting if you're the one facing it, I imagine), and instead just looks at her friends and loved ones. "Yeah, so basically I'm on my own," Joan answers. "You have everything you need, Joan," God replies as She leaves. Joan is left alone on the eve of battle, armed with weapons she doesn't fully understand. How closely will her fate mirror her predecessor's? We'll never know. But one hopes she'll be able to take the sweet from Jehanne's story, and leave the gall.
The end. Back to real life tomorrow! Um, yay?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-31 08:22 am (UTC)It may be worthwhile to link to them in
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-31 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-02 01:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-02 01:54 am (UTC)