Pope Joan (2009)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent but underrated film

Charming and brutal

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

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.

Even as a feminist, I could not stand a movie so ridiculously and awkwardly narrated in a so-called feminist's perspective while all other aspects are neglected. As if had Johanna been born a man, she would have smoothly made her way to the chair of saint peter and become the greatest pope of all time.Johanna was first and foremost a human being, with flaws and limitations, facing obstacles far more complex than that of her female identity.(poverty being one) The men in this movie, were either female-friendly saints or unreasonable prejudiced beasts. No reason were given to why they were such, nor were there any transitions of any kind.I know it is difficult to tell a biography story within two hours, but I still have to say it was not very well timed. Nor did give a good focus on Johanna's character. Yes she was a woman, she wanted to do good in the world, but that is applicable to millions of people in history. As a modern woman I wasn't even born so confident to believe that I am no less than a man, but our heroine was so genius that she didn't need to struggle a bit realize her strength. As a story about a pope, it is so superficial on religious matters that it didn't even bother to quote a few lines that we haven't heard of. no wonder there isn't any religious community seeking trouble about this movie---it's not even worth it.This movie really won't serve as a good example of a feminism movie.

The story does not appear to have good characterization. People were either 100 Percent good or 100 Percent bad. Real people with extreme rare exception have both good and bad traits. The simple characterizations made the movie too kid like. Also, the events were not really believable. The probability that the girl who the heroine helped when living in squalor, just so happened to be the woman to accidentally find the heroine before she almost died and who later happened to become the bishop of Paris who wrote the book to tell the story is just extremely low. Also the love story that the man who helped the heroine when she was a little girl in Germany later happened to come to Rome at the right time to help her when she was in her greatest danger and to be appointed as the chief of the Swiss Guard is as equally unbelievable.The movie may have been true to the book as its only redeeming feature. For it to be a compelling and interesting historic movie, it would have had to be a lot more nuanced.

This legendary tale of a woman who briefly ascended to the papal throne may be set in the ninth century, but its themes and its subject matter is as relevant now as it was before. In fact, the German-made, English-language "Pope Joan" arrives at a time when the Catholic Church is once again facing calls to allow women to be ordained priests- especially since in the wake of the recent paedophilia scandal in Europe, some point the cause to the Church's insistence on a male, celibate priesthood.Adapted from the bestseller by Donna Woolfolk Cross, the legend of Pope Joan goes that said woman posed as a man to enter the Benedictine monastery and rose to the favour of the previous pope due to her great intellect and learning. Yet after a reign of a few years, she gave birth to a baby during a papal procession and was torn apart by an angry mob. Whether this is fact or fiction is up to you to decide, though this adaptation which begins with a French bishop arriving in Rome to enter Joan's story in the papal archives wants you to believe its authenticity.The bishop's dictation frames the flow of the movie, which attempts to chronicle the life of Joan right from the time of her difficult birth to a fundamentalist village priest (Iain Glen) and his Saxon wife (Joerdis Triebel) to the time of her death in front of the Roman crowds. Even from a young age, we learn that Joan possessed extraordinary wisdom and an insatiable crave for knowledge. So despite her misogynistic father's opposition to girls receiving any form of education, she picks up reading and writing and even Scripture itself.These early years are presented with a bleakness and austerity that effectively, if manipulatively, gets the audience's sympathies firmly with Joan. As her father makes Joan watch him physically abuse her mother for not objecting to Joan's learning of Scripture, and then whips her severely for what he perceives as a grievous offence, it's hard not to root for the brilliant and bright Joan to break free from the chains of her father's misogyny.But that liberation is not to come till much later, even as the chance visit of a religious teacher marks her initiation into the religious life. Together with her brother Johannes, Joan is sent to study under the bishop of Dorstadt where she meets Gerold (David Wenham), a knight whom the teenage Joan slowly falls in love with. After the invading Norse army ambushes their village while Gerold is away, Joan binds her breasts and trims her hair, beginning her impersonation as her brother Johannes by joining the Fulda Abbey.Unfolding at a brisk pace, director Soenke Wortmann (of the German hit "The Miracle of Bern") deftly keeps the proceedings taut and the tension palpable, as Joan takes care to conceal her identity. When at the brink of being discovered, Joan journeys to Rome where she is first appointed as a physician to Pope Sergius (John Goodman) and slowly grows to become his personal adviser. After he is murdered by his own courtiers, Joan is chosen by the people of Rome as his successor, her election as Pope a carefully calculated sweet triumph for its audience.Yet it's not nearly enough for Joan to be Pope, her chance meeting with Gerold igniting her feelings for him and their eventual coupling resulting in her pregnancy. This reviewer must admit first and foremost that this turn of events didn't sit with his personal convictions too well- not for the fact that Pope Joan was female, but for her blatant disregard of the Church's understanding of celibacy. Bearing in mind she was firstly ordained and secondly unwed, should Pope Joan have given in to her feelings and consummated with Gerold? Would such an intelligent woman have acted so callously with little regard of the inevitable consequences? Where art thou would she command any moral authority as the head of the Church? Of course, such is the controversial nature of the legend that has remained hugely debated over the years, but it is inevitable that some audiences will find the material troubling. Nonetheless, it isn't less of a film just because it has chosen to tackle a topic of such divisive nature. Rather, lead actress Johanna Wokalek anchors the movie with an emotionally rousing performance portraying Joan's steeliness and vulnerability in equal measure. Best known for her roles in Til Schweiger's Barfuss and Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex, Wokalek not only looks the part, but plays it with gusto and aplomb.Yet it's easy to overlook Wokalek's brilliant acting in the film because of its subject matter which, as this reviewer has pointed out, remains as relevant today and therefore disputatious. It's best therefore that one approaches this with an open mind, and if necessary, a piece of fiction- for you will discover that this handsomely mounted historical epic is riveting and rousing from start to finish.