Carles Romero Vidal

On November 17, 2012, Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard joined the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra for a performance of Arthur Honegger’s oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake (Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher) at the L'Auditori de Barcelona in Spain, broadcast live on Medici.tv. By Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (1938) is an imposing oratorio. The libretto is a highly original creation by French poet and playwright Paul Claudel, who dramatises the last moments of the martyr's life. Originally written for actress Ida Rubinstein, the oratorio is written as a flashback in which Joan recalls her life, just before she dies. Honegger creates visually evocative ambiances and fills the orchestra with new sounds (saxophones, ondes Martenot). The initial prologue to the piece was added in 1944 as a symbol of the resistance during the Nazi occupation of France: again, Joan goes beyond her own story.

It is a mild winter and Martin has just settled into the isolated house that was his father's. One night, at the edge of the woods, a strange man called Haruki appears before him. He invites Martin to lose himself in the forest in order to encounter a stranger. The stranger comes in the form of Yoshido, a peculiar Japanese filmmaker, who, assisted by Mathilde, is preparing to shoot a film based on Haruki's unfinished novel La Vie lointaine.