Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Pope Joan article
- princess garnet
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1797
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: Maryland
Pope Joan article
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.
Pope Joan Film
[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.......
Film Producers are working on getting the Pope Joan Legend to film.....Hope it happens.......
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
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!
This would make a fabulous movie - I'm surprised Hollywood didn't get around to this sooner!
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info
- sweetpotatoboy
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1641
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: London, UK
[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.
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.
- sweetpotatoboy
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1641
- Joined: August 2008
- Location: London, UK
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
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.
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.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
Interview with Donna Cross about the new Pope Joan movie
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.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info
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
Hardcore catholics won't like this becuase this is going to open the whole can of worms about women/priests
News, views, and reviews on books and graphic novels for young adult.
http://yabookmarks.blogspot.com/
http://yabookmarks.blogspot.com/
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
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:
Whether or not there was a Pope Joan, there's abundant evidence of women in past centuries disguising themselves and living as men.
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.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.
Whether or not there was a Pope Joan, there's abundant evidence of women in past centuries disguising themselves and living as men.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info