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branquignoleOn Monday, I went to the cinema with my history class. (Okay, I'm exaggerating here, it was only about half of them.) I love going to the cinema tremendously, and the good thing about going there with school is that I have people with me (I mostly like).
Anyway, as we have just started treating the Middle Ages in history, going to see Pope Joan was of course rather convenient. But so was the plot at times. I have never read the book and can't compare the movie to it, and although I rather liked it, there were a few things I didn't think were all that great. I mean, the plot should be convenient to some extent, but it should be done in a clever way so that the viewer doesn't really realise how everything is made convenient. (Take, for example, that twist where the Normans massacre the inhabitants of the town Joan is currently living in while Gerold and his soldiers are conveniently gone and conveniently arrive exactly one day later to find Joan gone.) I also thought that the love story (especially the love story!) was rather predictable. I mean, if you know in the first few seconds how they're going to fall in love and that, in spite of their separation, are going to get back together, well, there's something wrong with it, in my opinion.
I also would have loved to see more of that internal struggle Joan must have been going through. It's not every day that a woman decides to live her life as a man, and I'm pretty sure that there must be some conflicted thoughts going on about it inside her. (I certainly know I would be rather conflicted about it. Not that I could fool people anyway.) Instead, they wasted time going into every tiny detail about Joan's childhood which, frankly, is the less important part of her life in my eyes. Sure, it's also interesting to see how she comes to be who and what she is in the end, but there was just too much "let's scrape the surface rushing by", or so it seemed to me, and it left me wondering more than once when Joan would finally become Pope Joan.
But there was one thing that made the movie more than bearable. (Okay, there was more than just one thing, but this one thing was the most... prominent.) It was, of course, David Wenham. Dudes, I love David Wenham. Especially as Faramir is one of my favouritest characters in Lord of the Rings and he played that role so well. He's just one of those people who make a movie good for me. So, when it became clear he would take Joan in ("Hooray, that means he's going to have more screentime!"), everything was alright with the world and I was a very happy girl. Well, until he died, anyhow.
Anyway, as we have just started treating the Middle Ages in history, going to see Pope Joan was of course rather convenient. But so was the plot at times. I have never read the book and can't compare the movie to it, and although I rather liked it, there were a few things I didn't think were all that great. I mean, the plot should be convenient to some extent, but it should be done in a clever way so that the viewer doesn't really realise how everything is made convenient. (Take, for example, that twist where the Normans massacre the inhabitants of the town Joan is currently living in while Gerold and his soldiers are conveniently gone and conveniently arrive exactly one day later to find Joan gone.) I also thought that the love story (especially the love story!) was rather predictable. I mean, if you know in the first few seconds how they're going to fall in love and that, in spite of their separation, are going to get back together, well, there's something wrong with it, in my opinion.
I also would have loved to see more of that internal struggle Joan must have been going through. It's not every day that a woman decides to live her life as a man, and I'm pretty sure that there must be some conflicted thoughts going on about it inside her. (I certainly know I would be rather conflicted about it. Not that I could fool people anyway.) Instead, they wasted time going into every tiny detail about Joan's childhood which, frankly, is the less important part of her life in my eyes. Sure, it's also interesting to see how she comes to be who and what she is in the end, but there was just too much "let's scrape the surface rushing by", or so it seemed to me, and it left me wondering more than once when Joan would finally become Pope Joan.
But there was one thing that made the movie more than bearable. (Okay, there was more than just one thing, but this one thing was the most... prominent.) It was, of course, David Wenham. Dudes, I love David Wenham. Especially as Faramir is one of my favouritest characters in Lord of the Rings and he played that role so well. He's just one of those people who make a movie good for me. So, when it became clear he would take Joan in ("Hooray, that means he's going to have more screentime!"), everything was alright with the world and I was a very happy girl. Well, until he died, anyhow.
