Fridae

Till today, it’s quite difficult to convince people that there was never a female pope. After all, everyone’s heard of the myth of Pope Joan and her infamous childbirth in the streets of Rome, or seen the High Priestess (aka La Papessa) card in tarot sets. That’s proof enough for the gullible of the veracity of this centuries-old urban legend. Historians helpfully say that there never was a Pope Joan, as she was known during her reign, in the periods where she was supposed to have served as the Fisherman of Christ.

Unless you believe in conspiracy theories, it’s more likely to concede that Pope Joan never existed. But isn’t it more fun to imagine that she did? In Pope Joan, director Sönke Wortmann plays it as a straight biopic, based on novelist Donna Woolfolk Cross’s reworking of the existing legends about the holy cross-dresser.

If there really was a Pope Joan, how would her world be? What kind of historical, social, and political circumstances and pure luck could have conspired to pushed a woman into a monastic order, priesthood, and then elevated her into a religious leader? What would her personal and professional struggles be like?

From such a fantastic premise, Pope Joan feels very much plausible and even authentic thanks to the amount of historical research that must have gone into it. Almost every detail from costume to set design is accurate. For a historical film made this century, this is actually an achievement since the trend is towards outright fantasy (see the centuries-outdated Roman legion costumes in Agora, for instance). History buffs will appreciate this attention to detail.

As with most German dramas, Pope Joan is a film that takes itself seriously. What saves it from being utterly dry and humourless is its casting of John Goodman as Pope Sergius, the alleged predecessor to Pope Joan. The American comedian plays the good-natured and well meaning pope along the lines of his performance in King Ralph, and provides the much needed entertainment that balances the weighty subject of this well-executed film.