The Countess is the story of the Hungarian Elizabeth (Erzebet) Bathory, the renowned countess who supposedly killed and tortured thousands of young virgins to maintain her beauty.

This movie completely escaped our attention in 2009 but in Paris, right now, there’s movie posters everywhere so we thought to post some trailers for those, like us, who didn’t know about it and might want to see it. A little note, the music in the following trailers is from the soundtrack of  The Village by Night Shyamalan.

Directed and interpreted by Julie Delpy, this project had also the participation of William Hurt and Daniel Brühl (magnificent in Good Bye Lenin!).

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496634/

Images: allocine.fr

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A woman as pope, the highest rank in the catholic church? For 1200 years the legend of Joan’s existence hasn’t died. In a world were Christianity was reducing a woman’s role to homemaker and mother a brave woman disguised as a man sat for two years on the papal throne.

“A girl,” he said. “So it was all for nothing.”

“Do not say so, sir.”

“She is a punishment from God. A punishment for my sins — and hers.”

The movie by Sönke Wortmann is based on the novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross. As an atheist (formerly catholic) I don’t really enjoy reading novels about the church, especially the catholic one. That’s the main reason why I didn’t pick up the bestselling novel. But the movie trailer pulled some strings in my heart and since I enjoy historical movies in general I didn’t need much persuasion to go to the movie theater.

Joan is wonderfully portrayed by three great actresses. Johanna Wokalek (adult Joan) is supreme, but I just loved the performance of the adolescent actress Lotte Flack. I could basically feel her hurt. A father who didn’t think her worth educating if his life depended on it and who even put a whip to her back because she learned to read in spite of his order not to.

Joan: “We have to answer for our conviction, even if the cost is high.”

Due to many coincidences she finds herself in the household of Gerold played by David Wenham. He’s known to most of us as Faramir from Lord of the Rings. I was waiting a long time for him to return to my screen and he is the perfect choice for Gerold. He and Johanna Wokalek had chemistry on screen, I was so entranced in their friendship, their growing love story that I felt betrayed by the films end. The only thing both of them didn’t do to my satisfaction were the kissing scenes. They seemed awkward, played and not passionate or loving.

Gerold:  “I don’t want you as my lover. I want you as my wife.”

I don’t want to reduce Pope Joan to her and Gerold because the legend has so much more to offer. A great John Goodman as Pope Sergius and several other likable and not so likable figures inside the catholic church. There are intrigues, politics and wars. Joan’s story is one of thirst for knowledge, survival, kindness, prudence and love for mankind. She seems like a person to have a long conversations with and whom I would gladly have seen as pope.

Gerold: “You are playing with fire, Joan”.

(Attention there’s some spoilers ahead !) 

There is one other thing though that kept bothering me: Joan’s pregnancy. I hope I haven’t spoiled that surprise but it always seemed obvious that she would be with child at some point. What I don’t get is the fact that she did get pregnant and stayed pregnant. She was a healer, knew her way around herbs so she would have to know how to prevent/abort a pregnancy. Wikipedia told me that that part was differing from the novel and that the book handles the situation to my satisfaction (in context with the story, not generally speaking). I am appeased.

(End of spoilers !)

Johanna Wokalek, David Wenham and all the others took me away into another world. It was a pleasure to see that the German film business does not equal dull, stupid, cheap movies but can be a momentum of history. I loved the settings, the sets, the way the camera moved in certain scenes and I enjoyed to see mostly unknown German actors get a chance. I was so unbelievable happy to not see faces like Iris Berben, Till Schweiger, Franka Potente², etc. who are usually cast in productions like this. It was refreshing.

Girls, I have to tell you to go see this movie if you ever get the chance³. For me it would be a great candidate for any movie award show. It has everything you need: a charismatic heroine who challenges the role of women in her time, intrigues, great war and battle scenes, a romantic love story and a not so happy ending.

One question remains: Is the legend true? I for my part would like to think so.

² Franka Potente was originally cast for the role of Joan. A near miss, I guess.

³ Pope Joan has a US distributor! No release date has been set yet. Word has it the film is being released in two formats: theatrical and mini-series. So there’s a chance for you non-Germans to watch it sometime in the future.

P.S: Davind Wenham is one gorgeous hunk… eye candy

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We are terribly late with this information since the trailer is available since May but we felt we should post it, mainly to satisfy our growing curiosity about the movie. As we said in our previous post, the movie is based on the book Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross. The author is organizing a special “Walk the Red Carpet”  and you can learn everything at her site.

Official site: http://www.die-paepstin.de/

These aren’t exactly fresh news but it’s always pleasant to admire good stills of interesting upcoming movies, like Pope Joan. A while ago, we talked about this adaptation based on Donna Woolfolk Cross’ bestseller and after seeing these images, we are very excited to watch this movie. What do you think?

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Images: Aceshowbiz.com