Pope Joan (2009)

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.

Fmovies: 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.

"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."

Pope Joan fmovies. the subject is far to be new. but it remains source of the same controversies. and the film has the rare gift to create a coherent, seductive image for a theory who remains obscure. the film has all the ingredients of genre. and it gives an interesting portrait of a woman who, against the social rules, step by step, sacrifice by sacrifice, becomes one of the most important figures of Catholic Church. the important thing is not the story itself. but the manner to use its nuances. because it has the romanticism and the tension, the fight scenes and the chain of dark secrets who define many other films. its specificity remains the beautiful performance of Johanna Wokalek who discovers the right rhythm for define in clear , delicate, precise manner her character. her admirable work is the axis of the inspired recreation of the atmosphere. and basic ingredient about a image of success and its price.

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.

This movie is about the indomitable spirit of many of our species regardless of race or sex. It's not about liberal or conservative, it's about right or wrong. Not about girl or boy, but about the abilities of each of us to advance the human cause on this earth. It's not about Buddist, Jew or Christian but about aleivating all the suffering we can. Consider that for one month of the cost of the war in the middle east, every human could have access to clean drinking water. Who knows where the next Einstein or TuTu will come from, surely the potential exists and needs a chance to show itself without the intolerance of prejudice for one of a different color, sex or the distance from your home they come. We have a duty to expand our knowledge and expose all to the light of reason and in that we have no fear. This movie is a gift to parents and adults that want to find the ways to help all. Ignorance is not bliss, the scene about the mustard seed is worth the price of this great movie. Allegory is when your teacher thanks you. Thank you mother.

Wokalek and Flack are superb and a joy. John Goodman is like your pastor or priest and as amiable as I imagine JohnPaul II. Petherbridge as Aesculapius is exactly my image of Hesse's Magister Ludi and Wenham, a developing Chomsky, could of evolved into a Smedly Butler! For those in power this could be a great mini-series for all involved, IMHO. Villains don't get a mention, sry Iain and AT. m.