Pope Joan

Plot

A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.

Release Year: 2009

Rating: 6.6/10 (2,669 voted)

Director:
Sönke Wortmann

Stars: Johanna Wokalek, David Wenham, John Goodman

Storyline
A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.

Writers: Donna Woolfolk Cross, Heinrich Hadding

Cast:

Johanna Wokalek
–

Johanna von Ingelheim

David Wenham
–

Gerold

John Goodman
–

Pope Sergius

Iain Glen
–

Village Priest

Edward Petherbridge
–

Aesculapius

Anatole Taubman
–

Anastasius

Lotte Flack
–

Johanna von Ingelheim – Age 10-14

Tigerlily Hutchinson
–

Pope Joan – age 6-9

Jördis Triebel
–

Joan's mother

Oliver Cotton
–

Arsenius

Nicholas Woodeson
–

Arighis

Suzanne Bertish
–

Bishop Arnaldo

Richard van Weyden
–

Eusthasius

Branko Tomovic
–

Paschal

Lenn Kudrjawizki
–

Jordanes

Release Date: 22 October 2009

Filming Locations: Atlas Corporation Studios, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Box Office Details

Budget: €22,000,000

(estimated)

Gross: $27,412,220
(Worldwide)
(8 June 2010)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Germany: 149 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Franka Potente was set to play the title character but had to leave due to scheduling conflicts shortly before filming began.

Quotes:

Johanna von Ingelheim:
As for will, woman should be considered superior to man for Eve ate of the apple for love of knowledge and learning, but Adam ate of it merely because she asked him.

User Review

historical novel

Rating: 8/10


Although critics in my native Greece were very circumspect when valuing
this movie I disagree with them. Many found that it lacked grandiose
crowds in the battle and acclamation of the Pope scenes, but I think
that in reality medieval battles and the assembly of Roman plebeians
acclaiming the Pope must not have been particularly grandiose events
and that added a quality of realism to the movie.

Also the structure of the story, the equivalent of what Germans call
Bildungsroman-that is the process of the development of character
through life, was presented in a very able manner, showing the
evolution of Joan, a simple but charismatic country girl, to supreme
Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

The love story subplot was also good adding romance to a tale that
would have been dull otherwise and proving that even scholarly girls
are not immune to the pleasures of the flesh.

I have to comment on the acting of Ms Wokalek, which I found admirable
in the way that it portrayed the subdued power of the character of Joan
under a facade of neutral manners and also the surprise role of John
Goodman who played a larger than life exuberant and kindly Pope.

The evocation of the age was also excellent avoiding excesses, and
presenting the mendacity of peasant life in the villages as well as the
relative luxury of the ruling classes.

Of course the main point of the story concerned the barriers that
gender and class posed to a talented poor woman during that dark age. I
think the story has similarities with that of Joan of Ark. The final
surprise, which I will not disclose, must have been a novelistic devise
relative to modern concerns about the Church invented by the author of
the novel on which the movie was based and not an integral part of the
Pope Joan legend as preserved through the ages.

All in all a very able movie which I greatly enjoyed. It is a pity that
the response of the Greek critics was at best lukewarm.