Pope Joan

Pope Joan_360P

source: Pope Joan

I'd vaguely heard of Pope Joan, but didn't know until looking her up this morning that she almost certainly didn't exist; I don't know if I would have watched the movie, knowing it was based on a novel I hadn't read. It was kind of slow-moving, and didn't have the lush costumes that are often my favorite part of historical movies, but it did have the most accurate portrayal I've ever seen of life in the middle ages. At the beginning of the movie I was surprised to see the title character's mother giving birth right in front of two other children, but then remembered that, just as people were conceived in full view of the household, they were born that way as well. As the movie went along, there was nothing missing but the smell! Several years of watching The Highlander didn't give me as graphic a view of what a beheading must actually look like as this movie did, and other details were just as they would have been. I'd recommend this movie most heartily to history majors and anyone who thinks the vanished past was glamorous.

This film was released in 2009, I was surfing Youtube, and I accidentally came upon the trailer. I love a historical drama, and I know a little about Pope Joan, and I didn't understand how I missed knowing about this film till now (2013) I suppose the promotion of foreign language films in Ireland is not great. Anyway I got hold of the film. It started off a bit slow but still you could see that this was an intriguing story on its own. How could a woman become a Pope in one of the foremost matriarch hierarchical societies in the world. It was then and still is. So how could it ever have happened. Historical there are no details and there it is probably a myth rather then fact, but even the myth is compelling. I watched the film and it was long but always interesting, any good piece on that period of humanity is. As "the life of man, is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" as Hobbes put it. Stories and the history of that age gives you a sense of count your blessings you live in this age. The film did have an agenda, as a reflection of the position of women in this age. I didn't mind that, Joan was forced to struggle and overcome the cultural limitations placed on her sex to express her natural humanity and intelligence, as millions of women still struggle with the same in this age. I would love to say things are wholely better in this age for women, but I know in parts of this modern world it is still very much the same. Women's march for equality is very far from over. So that seemed a natural agenda to push for a tale about a woman pope and why not? I would regard myself as a male feminist and the message still needs to be told. The film was far from perfect, and it could have been a whole lot better, there were scenes that could have been added and omitted, but I still found myself recommending it to friends, and it was one of the best 2 or more hours in front of the tele for me this year. I still loved it to spite its obvious flaws. In the end you can't beat a good story whether that story is true or not. So watch it and see do you agree with the 6.5 rating for this epic film in scope and tale. I think 6.5 is very unfair, I rate it 9/10.

The story is old. The details are spices of dusty legend. The tragedy of a Roman Church "accident" is chapter of many conspiracy books. But, behind that things, "Pope Joan" is a beautiful film. And this fact is important.For costumes and atmosphere, for extraordinary John Goodman and for the art of details, for the basic fact than the IX-th century is another XXI century, for the perfume of serenity and the force of a myth to be stronger than reality. For the feeling than Joan exist without any testimony. For the spring air and grass smell. For the art to destroy clichés. For remember of essential values of human circle and the end as fly of ash bird. For the warm impression . Historic movie, it is in fact a parable. Like many who sleeps in our memories.

"Pope Joan" is a movie with a message, or rather an agenda, and it shoves it down the throats of the audience with the subtlety of a jackhammer. This piece of dreck will surely insult the intelligence of anyone with a 9th-grade education or higher. In a pathetic attempt to give the script a pseudo-intellectual tone, the writers lifted selections from Western Philosophy 101, the New International Version, Introduction to Feminism, and 19th Century anti-Catholic propaganda and recycled it in the form of pretentious dialogue; "I think, therefore God exists?!" Misquoting Renee Descartes and adding a little bit of the Ontological Argument doesn't make laughably bad lines like "I think, therefore God exists" actually logical. If the writers wanted to give the audience a lesson in philosophy and Church History, they could have skipped this piece of historically inaccurate fiction and made a film about St. Anselm of Canterbury (but that would have been a snooze). When reading about the woman who wrote the book on which this film is based, it turns out that "Pope Joan" is her only novel; the rest of her publications are self-help books. Go figure. In a pathetic attempt to convince us that the mission of the Catholic Church is to keep knowledge, love, and responsibility away from women, this film insults the real women of the early Catholic Church who paved the way for female dignity. Those women were called nuns. From the time that St. Scholastica founded the first women's monastery in the 6th Century up until the present, Catholic nuns have managed the business affairs of their self-sufficient communities, dedicated themselves to learning and knowledge, composed music, and written scholarly works unsurpassed by men. They fought off invaders, risked their lives to found new communities in foreign countries, stood up to Popes and kings, refused to be used as pawns in arranged marriages, and were disowned by their families all for the sake of becoming closer to God through prayer, knowledge, and love. They did all of this without having to deceive themselves and others by denying their womanhood or hopping in bed with some man, unlike the title character of this movie. At least the film mentions St. Catherine of Alexandria, and there are hundreds more women Saints whose stories are equally gripping: Hildegarde von Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Prague, Colette of Corbie, Teresa of Avila, Elisabeth of Hungary, just to name a few. Read the letters or autobiographies of many of these women (you'd never guess from "Pope Joan," but yes, medieval Catholic women did in fact know how to write!) rather than watching a movie; most films about the Saints are sugar-coated and poorly acted. That being said, even the corniest Saint movies aired on EWTN are better than the cardboard acting in "Pope Joan."

It is for sure one of the best movies about ancient history and educated women that I seen so far, what makes this unique is that Joan strives to excel in religion and science. She comes from a traditional middle-ages background where women are uneducated so she has to learn how to look and act like a man to be able to follow her passion, this creates a constant struggle to hide her true gender. Her intelligent and strength in human character shines through the canvas and what she manages to accomplish in her lifetime was phenomenal!

"Pope Joan" is NOT an historical movie, it is a Fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. We live in a very sad times when garbage like this is taken as "historical" when in fact there has never been a "Pope Joan". The legend of "Pope Joan" was a bad attempt of political satire during the Middle Age made to attack the Catholic Church. The myth of "Pope Joan" was totally destroyed by historian David Blondel: the story that she was Pope "from 853 to 855" is so lame considering that from 847 to 855 there was already a Pope: Pope Leone IV. So she couldn't have been Pope during that period. Pope Leone IV died in 855, and after a couple of weeks he was succeeded by Pope Benedetto III. So if you go to watch this movie, keep in mind that you're watching NOT an historical movie, but a fantasy movie. They could've added to the cast Gandalf and Frodo for all that matters, since the whole story of Pope Joan is just a bad and lame satire used in the Middle Age to attack the Catholic Church.

I went to see Pope Joan with a group of friends the day it was released in Germany. Most of us had already read the book, but some had not. We were all quite skeptical as to whether the movie would be true to the book and whether it wasn't a little too long (two and a half hours seemed a lot to us!). But, after having seen it, I must say it was one of the most absorbing two-and-half-hours-movie I've ever seen. I didn't have a look at my watch once. The story is quite true to the book. I read the book at least 8 years ago, so I had forgotten most of it. However, when the plot evolved, my memory came back and I didn't notice any major deviances from the book, neither did my friends. "Pope Joan" is just a classical historical movie and everyone who loves that genre, will most certainly enjoy the movie! It has everything you need: a charismatic heroine who challenges the role of women in her time; some good and wise clergymen (John Goodman is great fun as food-loving, jovial Pope!); some evil and brutal clergymen who want to spread Christianity violently; some scheming and intrigues; a good portion of war and battle scenes; a romantic love story and, last but not least that interesting question at the end that will certainly cause you to discuss with your friends and search wikipedia: Was there really a woman who became Pope?

Didn't know what to expect from a movie called "Pope Joan"! I was pleasantly surprised how good and believable the story was in the first half. I am not going to try and say what the rights and wrongs are of women reaching high office in the church are. For me this was triumph over adversity with understated acting by the lead character. Not sure about the romance side of the film, it didn't seem to add much to the plot there was no real build up to the relationship. The first half of the film was more interesting than the second again the plot seemed to get lost and the characters were not as strong. In saying that I still found myself intrigued by the film. If your wondering if its a film worth watching I think its more than worthwhile. All in all I still enjoyed it even though the plot and characters could have been bit stronger.