Pope Johanna
Pope Joan is a British feature film from 1972 , which directed by Michael Anderson was born.
The dramatic film plot is based on the medieval legend of Popess Johanna .
action
The Franconian Empire in the 9th century, Johanna travels with her mother and father, an English traveling preacher, through the country, always preaching where the opportunity arises. Johanna, who learned to read and write from her father at an early age and can thus read the biblical texts, also helps with the sermons. She reads texts from the Bible and amazes the audience, who can hardly believe that such a young girl can do this.
Years go by. First the mother dies, then the father. So now Johanna, meanwhile grown up to be a young woman, is completely on her own. This situation is taken advantage of by three monks who traveled with her and their father and preached with me. She is raped by them. Severely traumatized, she entered a monastery and became a nun. There she meets the monk Adrian, who paints paintings of saints, which he understands as his real calling. He begins a love affair with Johanna because, like many other clergymen of the time, he does not live in celibacy .
One day new messages reach the monastery. Emperor Ludwig is dead. His son Lothar and his son Karl are now fighting for the royal throne. Lothar won the Saxons as allies, which he achieved with the admission of the belief in Wotan . So it comes about that Saxon warriors attack the monastery, assassinate the nuns and burn the monastery down to the foundation walls. But Adrian and Johanna can barely escape this inferno. To facilitate the escape, Johanna cuts her hair and in the following pretends to be a monk, named Johannes. Adrian and brother Johannes meet Lothar's army and his older son Ludwig . There was a battle shortly before, so many of the warriors still succumb to their fresh wounds. Brother John is supposed to do the confessions of the dying, but he refuses because he is not ordained . Therefore, Brother John is brought before a bishop who immediately ordains him. The next day the camp is demolished. Brother Adrian and the still very young brother Johannes use the tumult to leave Lothar's army. They go south, first to Athens , to a monastery where reading and prayer are possible. Once there, they learn that Prince Lothar was killed in a battle in Linz . Now his son Ludwig is fighting with Karl about the choice of emperor.
During this time Johanna began to preach, still disguised as Father John. Her path leads her to Rome together with Adrian . There, too, she preaches as Father John. The Vatican noticed her and was summoned before the ailing Pope . Pope Leo is very impressed by her and appoints her cardinal and papal private secretary. With amazement and doubt, driven by the hope of being able to change something in the world, she accepts the office. As a private secretary, she manages with negotiating skills and cunning to create an alliance between Ludwig and Karl against the Saracens , so that the empire is no longer destroyed by the dispute between the brothers.
But soon afterwards the Pope dies, not without wishing on his deathbed that John should be his successor. In fact, the Cardinal Bishops adhere to his will and elect John as the new Pope, who is then crowned Pope without delay . Some time later, Ludwig stands at the gates of Rome, he does not intend to recognize the election. The new Pope threatens Ludwig with excommunication , manages to change his mind and crowns him emperor of the Roman Empire. In doing so, Ludwig realizes that Johannes is a woman he once met in a monastery. He kisses her, which Johanna, who fell in love with young Ludwig at the monastery, passionately replies. The Pope soon felt uncomfortable and sick. During a procession in Rome to celebrate the victory of Ludwig and Karl against the Saracens, Pope John breaks down in pain with screams.
At this hour Johanna recognizes her pregnancy, but it is too late, she dies giving birth to her child. The crowd watching the procession tore Pope Joan to pieces.
backgrounds
Four years after Michael Anderson had made the film In the Fisherman's Shoes , he dealt again with the Catholic papacy , this time with the legend of Popess Joan . The resulting historical film was shot in Cyprus and Romania .
The film was released in cinemas in 1972 in the United States , West Germany, and Finland . This was followed by premieres in Denmark (1973) and France (1974). The film Pope Johanna was not particularly successful, however, and quickly disappeared from the cinema screens.
The theatrical version appeared for the first time in 2007, under the title: Pope Johanna , with both an English and a German soundtrack on DVD. This version has a running time of approximately 105 minutes.
But in 2003 a restored and expanded version with a running time of 132 minutes under the title: Pope Joan was released on DVD in the English-speaking world . This renewed film version is characterized by an added framework story.
Due to this expansion, the film plot is a little different. The film takes place in America during the hippie movement and is about a modern Protestant preacher who feels a strong connection to the legendary Popess Johanna. The psychiatrists Dr. Stevens and Dr. Corwin try to place the said young woman in the time of the 9th century to find out whether she is the reincarnation of the Popess. In this version the medieval film sequences are inserted as flashbacks and flash forwards .
In 2009 the story of the Popess was again adapted as a film. This new film adaptation by the director Sönke Wortmann based on the novel The Popess by Donna Woolfolk Cross , under the title The Popess , gained a higher degree of popularity.
criticism
- "The film is satisfied with the outside of this fantastic fairy tale by turning the adventurous and gloomy color of the 9th century into a show and horror picture: pious and lascivious things tingle, love secrecy as pokers, battle slaughter and desecration of nuns as horror." - Lexicon of international film
- The Berliner Zeitung wrote at the end of 2009:
“If you have a few euros left before Christmas, you can go to the cinema and do “ The Popess ”to yourself. But he can also leave it and instead buy an old film by Michael Anderson in which the legendary female head of God's only blessed church is embodied by Liv Ullmann. [...] Anderson's film may not be a masterpiece, but it shows an unusual variant of the material and combines excellent actors [...] "
- In Focus , too , the remake was compared with the one by Michael Anderson and fell through, with the following words: “The main actress Johanna Wokalek is also a bit bland [...]. Unlike Liv Ullmann in a film from the seventies about the legend of the Pope, it is a blank space that unmovedly accepts beatings, bullying, plague and the choice of the hot seat. A hard-working bee with a tonsure that serves as a mouthpiece for emancipatory and enlightening messages [...] Reason, knowledge, learning and courage is her credo, for which her belief provides arguments: Amen. "
Film media
- DVD : Pope Johanna - Alive - Sales and Marketing
- DVD : Pope Joan - Platinum Disc
- Music : Pope Joan She Who Would Be Pope - Active Distribution Ltd.
Web links
- Pope Joan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- She… Who would be Pope - A Film About A Legend… And A Legend In The Making .
- Pope Johanna . TV feature film
- The Popess . Description of the new film in which it is compared to the film Pope Johanna .
References and comments
- ↑ a b c d e Only in the extended version.
- ↑ The Duden of Spelling (25th edition, 2010) defines legend briefly as a (saint) story; (pious) legend
- ^ Pope Joan (1972). Internet Movie Database , accessed November 10, 2015 .
- ↑ The theatrical version explicitly affirms the truth of the legend by means of the written words: “Since it was first mentioned in medieval texts, the legend has persisted that in the restless 9th century a woman ascended the holy seat. […] Of all the stories from this cruel time, the one that follows is the most consistent […] ”at the beginning of the film.
- ↑ At the beginning of the film there are some written words - among other things: "[...] Celibacy was not generally mandatory, which is why a nun could definitely have a lover or a monk a lover. [...] "
- ↑ At the end of the film, as at the beginning of the film, there are again a few written words that read: Pope Johanna died during a procession through the streets of Rome, giving birth to her child, she was torn to pieces by the crowd.
- ↑ Filming locations for Pope Joan (1972). Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
- ^ Starting dates for Pope Joan (1972). Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
- ↑ The Popess . cinemusic.de
- ↑ Partly also under the name: The Devil's Imposter , as well as under the name: She ... Who would be Pope
- ↑ The DVD in question only has an English soundtrack.
- ↑ She… Who would be Pope - A Film About A Legend… And A Legend In The Making . and Pope Joan (1972) New York Times
- ↑ She… Who would be Pope - A Film About A Legend… And A Legend In Its Making .
- ↑ With regard to the lower level of awareness - cf. for example: Female pope film sparks Vatican row . guardian.co.uk
- ^ Lexicon of International Films . CD-ROM edition. Systhema, Munich 1997.
- ↑ DVD tip . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 3, 2009
- ^ "The Popess" A woman at the head of the Catholic Church? Focus , October 20, 2009; Retrieved June 26, 2010