Saint Joan

Image Not Available Starring: John Gielgud, Otto Preminger Dvd Release: 6th October, 2003 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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Saint Joan is a 1923 play by George Bernard Shaw that he wrote shortly after the Roman Catholic Church canonized Joan of Arc. It is a dramatization based on the records of her trial made public by the Church in the 1920s that was first produced in 1923. The play itself is a statement on organized religion as an oxymoron & depicts Joan herself as the model of clear thinking in a muddled world. Although Shaw had a much larger body of work, this play is often credited with his receiving the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature. Saint Joan is also the title of a 1957 movie based on the play, directed by Otto Preminger, with a screenplay by Graham Greene.

Sir Arthur John Gielgud OM CH was an English theatre & film actor, regarded by many as one of the greatest of his time. John Gielgud was born in Kensington in London & had a head start in the theatrical profession, being a great-nephew of Ellen Terry. He trained at RADA & had his initial success as a stage actor in classical roles. He starred & directed in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions at Stratford-upon-Avon. His Hamlet of 1936 was particularly admired. Although he began to appear in British films as early as the 1930s, he would not make an impact in the medium until the last decades of his life. Benjamin Disraeli in The Prime Minister, Cassius in Julius Caesar & George, Duke of Clarence to Laurence Olivier s Richard III. Unlike Olivier, he remained primarily a stage actor & so the rivalry between them was minimal. As he aged, Gielgud began to adapt more to changing fashions in the theatre, appearing in plays by Harold Pinter. In the 1980s & 1990s, it was jokingly said that he was prepared to do almost anything for his art. Posters Of Richard Iii

Editors Choice: Richard Iii, Secret Agent, Alfred Hitchcock, Sabotage, The Secret Agent, Saint Joan, The Shooting Party, View DVDology

Otto Ludwig Preminger was a film director. Born in Vienna, of assimilated Jewish ancestry, he worked with Max Reinhardt before emigrating to America. At first he directed & acted for 20th Century Fox, his Austrian accent typecasting him as a screen Nazi. After the war, he became one of the most consistent Hollywood directors of the 1950s & early 1960s - delivering intelligent & entertaining films, often literary adaptations, albeit rather melodramatic or heavy-going on occasion. Notable films include Anatomy of a Murder with James Stewart & Ben Gazzara, Advise & Consent with an on-form Charles Laughton & Bonjour Tritesse with David Niven & Deborah Kerr. Through a relationship with Gypsy Rose Lee he had one child, the screenwriter Eric Lee Preminger. Otto Preminger died in 1986 & was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York. Preminger received one Oscar nomination for Best Picture for Anatomy of a Murder. He was twice nominated for the best director award for Laura & for The Cardinal. Posters Of In Harms Way

Editors Choice: In Harms Way, Anatomy Of A Murder, The Man With The Golden Arm, Exodus, Carmen Jones, Where The Sidewalk Ends, Laura, Whirlpool, View DVDology

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