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Pope Joan article

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princess garnet
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Pope Joan article

Post by princess garnet » Fri February 20th, 2009, 3:52 pm

I came across this interesting article about Pope Joan yesterday. If you've read Donna Woolfolk Cross's novel or not, which will be made into a movie, this article should be an interesting read. The author says it took him time to research the Pope Joan legend.

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Pope Joan Film

Post by chuck » Fri February 20th, 2009, 4:41 pm

[quote=""princess garnet""]I came across this interesting article about Pope Joan yesterday. If you've read Donna Woolfolk Cross's novel or not, which will be made into a movie, this article should be an interesting read. The author says it took him time to research the Pope Joan legend.[/quote]

Film Producers are working on getting the Pope Joan Legend to film.....Hope it happens....... :) :)

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Post by Margaret » Sun February 22nd, 2009, 10:23 pm

I really enjoyed Donna Cross's novel. She includes an afterword outlining the evidence supporting the possibility that there may indeed have been a Pope Joan, although she doesn't claim it as proof. I'm not convinced in either direction. The evidence is tantalizing, and there are examples of women who did masquerade as male monks in the Middle Ages.

This would make a fabulous movie - I'm surprised Hollywood didn't get around to this sooner!
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Sun February 22nd, 2009, 11:43 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]I'm surprised Hollywood didn't get around to this sooner![/quote]

They did. There was a 1972 movie called 'Pope Joan' starring Liv Ullmann and Olivia de Havilland and others. I saw it on TV a few years ago and didn't think much of it. Hopefully the new one will be better.

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Post by Kasthu » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 12:00 am

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]They did. There was a 1972 movie called 'Pope Joan' starring Liv Ullmann and Olivia de Havilland and others. I saw it on TV a few years ago and didn't think much of it. Hopefully the new one will be better.[/quote]

Actually, I'm not so sure the movie is based on the book--wasn't Pope Joan published in the '90s? In any case, I know from my sources that a script of the novel has been floating around for a number of years... it's taken some time considering that Cross is writing it herself instead of trusting it to a screenwriter.
Last edited by Kasthu on Mon February 23rd, 2009, 12:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 12:09 am

[quote=""Kasthu""]Actually, I'm not so sure the movie is based on the book--wasn't Pope Joan published in the '90s? [/quote]

Oh, I realise that. I thought you just meant how long it has taken Hollywood to do the story of Pope Joan.

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Post by Margaret » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 6:52 am

Liv Ullman! Was it an Ingmar Bergman movie?

I did a little (very little) research on the current version and see it's being filmed in Germany with a German director and mostly German cast. So it's not really "Hollywood." But as Kasthu mentioned, Donna Cross has been very involved in writing the screenplay, so the story should follow the story of her novel pretty closely. It's supposed to be out this coming August.
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Interview with Donna Cross about the new Pope Joan movie

Post by Margaret » Thu July 9th, 2009, 1:22 am

I've just posted an interview with Donna Cross on my blog, along with a photo showing Johanna Wokalek as Joan. The producer is the same company that made the film of "The Name of the Rose," so you know it's got to be a visual and intellectual feast. The actual date of the U.S. premiere is still up in the air, it seems, but is to be sometime this fall. Donna is running a contest for a lucky winner and one guest to join her at the premiere (full information on yesterday's blog post, with a link to Donna's website). If I wasn't allergic to perfume, I'd enter myself.
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Post by Divia » Thu July 9th, 2009, 1:49 am

Interesting article. I find it interesting that the author sometimes says "so what if it happened it doesnt change anything." Which is different than the usual argument that they give.

Hardcore catholics won't like this becuase this is going to open the whole can of worms about women/priests
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Post by Margaret » Thu July 9th, 2009, 1:58 am

It seems to me the important thing about the Pope Joan legend is not so much whether there truly was or actually was not a woman pope (we'll never know), but that people believed there had been. In the article Princess G linked to at the beginning of this thread, it says:
The basic outline of the main legend (actually, there have been several competing legends over the centuries) has it that in the ninth or tenth century, a plain but extraordinarily brilliant young woman contrived to enter the university disguised as a man. Her intellect outstripped her male classmates and she shot to the top rank of students. Talk of her prowess in law, science, rhetoric, philosophy and languages was widespread.
It matters, I think, that people in the Middle Ages were willing to believe (horrified though they might have been by the idea) that a woman could be intellectually brilliant enough to become a pope.

Whether or not there was a Pope Joan, there's abundant evidence of women in past centuries disguising themselves and living as men.
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