Pope Joan (2009 film)

Pope Joan

Release poster
Directed by Sönke Wortmann
Produced by Bernd Eichinger
Oliver Berben
Martin Moszkowicz
Screenplay by Heinrich Hadding
Jodi Ann Johnson
Sönke Wortmann
Based on a novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Starring Johanna Wokalek
David Wenham
John Goodman
Music by Marcel Barsotti
Cinematography Tom Fährmann
Edited by Hans Funck
Production
company
Distributed by Constantin Film (Germany)
Medusa Film (Italy)
Release dates
  • 19 October 2009 (2009-10-19) (Berlin premiere)
  • 22 October 2009 (2009-10-22) (Germany)
  • 4 June 2010 (2010-06-04) (Italy)
Running time
 149 minutes
Country Germany
United Kingdom
Italy
Spain
Language English
Budget €22,000,000 (estimated)
Box office $27,412,220 (Worldwide) (8 June 2010)

Pope Joan (German: Die Päpstin) is an international epic film produced by Bernd Eichinger, based on American novelist Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel of the same name about the legendary Pope Joan. Directed by Sönke Wortmann, it stars Johanna Wokalek as Joan, David Wenham as Gerold, her lover, and John Goodman as Pope Sergius II.[1] The film's world premiere occurred in Berlin on 19 October 2009, with its general release in Germany on 22 October 2009.

Plot

Shortly after the death of Charlemagne, a woman called Joan is born in Ingelheim am Rhein. She is the daughter of a village priest (Iain Glen). He also rules his wife (Jördis Triebel) and family with a rod of iron, though his Saxon wife still secretly worships the pagan god Wotan. Even so, Joan grows up to be an articulate girl, who intensively studies the Bible, unbeknownst to her father. After her eldest brother's sudden death, their father wants to send his second son John to the cathedral school in Dorestad, but when the teacher Aesculapius (Edward Petherbridge) visits them in Ingelheim, Joan proves to be far more capable of dealing with the Scriptures than John. Against her father's wishes, Joan is taught by Aesculapius, who introduces her to literary works such as Homer's Odyssey.

When a messenger comes from the bishop to collect Joan to take her to the cathedral school, her father claims there has been a mistake and allows him to ride away with his other son. Joan flees her home at night and finds her brother, next to the body of the slain messenger. They reach Dorestad together, where the bishop reacts to Joan's strong words with great surprise, and the teacher Odo (Marc Bischoff) unwillingly takes her into his class. Count Gerold (David Wenham), however, supports the now-adolescent Joan by taking her into his home. Later Gerold falls in love with her. Soon afterwards, Gerold has to go to war in the army of Lothair I and his wife Richilde (Claudia Michelsen) takes advantage of his absence to try to arrange a marriage for Joan and thus get rid of her rival for Gerold's affections. However, the vikings break into the city during the wedding ceremony and carry out a bloody massacre, which Joan barely manages to survive. Joan flees the town in a male disguise, entering the Fulda monastery of Benedictines as "Brother Johannes Anglicus". When a fever spreads around the monastery and Joan becomes ill, she manages to avoid a physical examination, thanks to an elderly monk, who had realized she was a woman long before the fever hit. She flees the monastery and is sheltered, as a woman, by Arn (Marian Meder), the son of a woman she had helped years earlier. Arn makes her a tutor to his daughter Arnalda.

Joan decides to re-assume her male disguise and goes on a pilgrimage to Rome to use her medical knowledge to become a Medicus there. In Rome she wins a great reputation by curing Pope Sergius II of gout with her herbal remedies. Sergius makes her his personal physician and eventually Nomenclator. When the pope threatens Lothair I for not confirming his election, Lothair marches to Rome to subdue Sergius. Using a hydraulic device, the great door of the papal palace closes all by itself, seen as an Act of God. Pope Sergius threatens Lothair and his soldiers with God's wrath if they do not pay their respect. Lothair's soldiers all kneel, with Lothair following. Fascinated by what he has seen, Gerold—who came with Lothair—recognizes Joan and reveals his desire for her. She is torn between her male and female identities.

Meanwhile, Lothair's ally Anastasius successfully plots to murder Sergius, but the people elect Joan as his successor by acclamation. During her pontificate she presents herself as a charitable pope, helping women and children and appointing Gerold as head of the papal army. However, she becomes pregnant and her reign is then in grave danger. She tries to hold off giving birth until after Easter, but Gerold is killed during the Easter procession by conspirators led by Anastasius, and that day Joan collapses and then dies in childbirth.

Anastasius succeeds her but soon afterwards he is deposed by the Roman people and exiled to a monastery. There he writes the Liber Pontificalis, a list of the popes, from which he omits Joan. Many years later the story of the female pope is made known by Bishop Arnaldo, who is revealed to be, in fact, Arnalda, the daughter of Arn.

Differences from novel

The novel places the pontificate of Pope Leo IV between that of Sergius and Joan, but in the film Joan immediately succeeds Sergius. Sergius's brother and deputy Benedict are replaced in the film by Anastasius, increasing the importance of the latter character. In the film, Anastasius poisons Sergius; in the novel, Sergius dies of gout and natural causes and Anastasius poisons Leo.

In the novel, Joan spends her first night with Gerold in a house where they seek refuge from a flood, whereas in the film it occurs by a river. The film also removes the couple's attempted abortion of their child, and the childhood relationship between them is only briefly discussed, whereas in the novel that relationship is more detailed; for example, they have a bond via a wolf called Lukas whom they both raise. After Gerold's departure, Richhild kills the wolf and thus symbolically separates the lovers' last bond for years.

In the film, it turns out that Joan's mentor at Fulda, Brother Benedict, knows her true identity; in the novel, her identity remains a secret to all the monks there to the end.

In the film, the steward Arighis is promoted to papal nomenclator (a role he does not occupy in the book) and does not die, whereas in the book, he dies in a fire during Leo IV's pontificate, sacrificed for Leo's building project, the Leonine Wall. In the novel, Arighis is succeeded by a young man named Waldipert, who works for Anastasius's father Bishop Arsenius and Leo; in the film, Waldipert is Sergius's valet as well as being in the pay of Arsenius and is not murdered as he is in the novel. In the novel, Renatus is the servant of Sergius and not Joan. Similarly, Zelestinus is not mentioned in the film, whereas in the novel, he is a valet at the papal court.

The novel gives Joan's blonde hair as her most dramatic characteristic, but the actress playing Joan in the film has brown hair. Joan dies of a miscarriage in both the film and novel but in the novel her lover Gerold dies in her arms shortly before her death, whereas in the film, they die simultaneously but in two different places.

In general, many events in the film are arranged in a different chronology from that of the novel. Some events, such as Joan's marriage, are moved back in time (in the novel she is 14 years old at the time; in the film she is 18 to 19, whilst Gerold's daughters are made much younger in the film than in the novel), whilst others are moved forward, such as the proposal to appoint Nicephoros as a bishop, which occurs in Joan's pontificate in the novel but during Sergius' in the film.

Production

The film's production took a long time and was marked by financial and cast difficulties. The Oscar-winner Volker Schlöndorff's attempt to film the novel began in 1999, at first with the production companies UFA and Senator, until the latter was declared bankrupt in 2004, when he moved to Bernd Eichinger and Constantin Film. The planned principal photography was finally shelved in 2007 by a cancellation by John Goodman. The following summer Schlöndorff wrote a review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung criticising the production for film and television, leading to his dismissal. Sönke Wortmann replaced him as director and shortly afterwards, in May 2008, Franka Potente was replaced by Johanna Wokalek in the title role.[1]

Shooting began in early August 2008 at Burg Querfurt in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Other locations were the cloister of the Landesschule Pforta and the church of St. Cyriakus in Gernrode, with the Rome scenes filmed in Ouarzazate, Morocco. Principal shooting was completed in 2008 in Germany and Morocco.

Cast

Reception

The Guardian noted the film's appearance in the Italian box office top 10 and noted Vatican criticism of the film and L'Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, described it as being of "extremely limited vision".[2]

Awards

Pope Joan was nominated in four categories in the 2010 Deutscher Filmpreis (Best Supporting Actress for Jördis Triebel, Art Direction, costumes, and sound design).

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "John Goodman back in "Pope Joan" after lawsuit". Vancouver Sun. July 30, 2008. Retrieved December 14, 2008.
  2. ↑ Child, Ben (2010-06-22). "Female pope film sparks Vatican row". The Guardian (London).

External links

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