Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 23: Saving Grace

Another film from 1986, but with the pope front and center. Tom Conti plays Leo XIV, a pope whose doubts and feeling of isolation from regular people come to a critical mass when he finds himself locked out of the Vatican. Leaving aside questions of how that happens, Leo eventually finds himself in a village where he learns to reconnect, etc.

This was apparently the last movie released by Embassy Pictures, which gave us films like The Graduate, The Lion in Winter, and Zapped! 

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 22: Thérèse 

This 1986 film tells the story of Thérèse of Lisieux, a nun whose writings and simple approach to worship eventually led to her sainthood. Not sure how the pope figures into this, as it seems like she attracted most of her attention after death, But there's a pope here, played by Armand Meppiel in his only movie credit.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 21: Francis of Assisi

This 1961 film is a straightforward biopic of the current pope's namesake. Not much to say about it, really. The pope is played by Finley Currie, a British character actor who didn't make his first film until he was in his 50s. The only other notable name (to me, at least) is Pedro Armendáriz, who plays a sultan. You may know him better for his last film role, Kerim Bey in From Russia With Love. 

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 20: Pope Joan

I read the book this was based on (OK novel, poor attempt at trying to make it historical fact). The short of it - an English woman raised in Germany manages to become pope, but has her gender discovered in a very public way with the sort of consequences you'd expect in the first millennium AD.

I've not heard of the German actress who played Joan, but I have heard of the actor who plays Pope Sergius; John Goodman. I would love to know how he wound up in that role in this movie, as he's really the only obvious Hollywood type in the picture. 

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 19: In the Days of Saint Patrick

This silent film from 1920 is about the life of St. Patrick, with an actor named George Brame (in his only credit) playing Pope Celestine. It's an Irish film, and apparently the state of Irish film at the time resulted in something that had great outdoor scenes and comically amateur indoor scenes (based on the one review on the IMDB page).

The adult Patrick is played by someone named Ira Allen, which is interesting to me for two reasons. First, Allen only has two credits in IMDB - this film and a 2010 songwriting credit in Country Strong. Based on Ira Allen's website, I'm thinking the credits belong to two different Iras.

The other reason that caught me is that one of the buildings on our campus is the former Ira Allen school, named for a prominent Roxbury doctor and coroner. And not the Irish actor. Or American country musician. Or founding father of Vermont and brother of Ethan Allen.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 18: Dante's Inferno

This updated telling of Dante's epic uses paper puppets and miniature sets to tell the tale, and I'm torn between that being kind of cool and the trope of  "updating" a classic to remind us how little humanity has changed over the years.

Tony Hale (aka Buster Bluth) voices Pope Nicholas III, who is in hell for simony and is punished by being put head first into a hole and having his feet set on fire. Now I really want to see how they pulled that off using paper puppets. 

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 17: We Have a Pope

This Italian movie from 2011 is about a conclave where the newly-elected pope refuses his election to office, and the events that ensue in trying to get him to take the job. It's listed as a comedy and a drama on IMDB, and the one review suggests it's more a comedy. It did pick up a few awards in Italy, for what that's worth.

Book Log 2014 #3: The Yard by Alex Grecian

Set in a Victorian London still rattled by Jack the Ripper, a series of police killings puts stress on the Murder Squad, a unit within Scotland Yard created to solve killings. When it falls to the squad's newest member - brought in from the sticks for reasons he's not even clear about - to solve the case, there's doubt among his colleagues that he's up to the task. This impression may not be helped by his use of a doctor (with his new-fangled ideas about things like "finger marks") and constables who have their own issues.

There's nothing super remarkable about this book, it's another reasonably good historical crime novel that highlights the clash between old and new thinking at the turn of the 20th century. One thing I did like about it is that we learn the identity of the killer fairly early on, and get to see much of what happens from that perspective, which isn't so common.

Worth a read if you're looking for something in this genre, certainly.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 16: Vatican Conspiracy

Apparently this is a highly fictionalized riff on the death of John Paul I, wherein a religious hermit gets mixed up with terrorists and plans to kill the pope by poisoning (and not the sniper rifle that's being hefted by someone in the poster, apparently). There's nothing really notable about the film except that the pope is played by Terence Stamp, who seems like he'd be better suited to playing a Borgia pope.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 15: Lisztomania

As a performer in the early 1840s, Franz Liszt developed an intense following among his fans, who would rush him during performances and follow him outside of the concert hall, looking to get a keepsake or otherwise interact with him. In an age where such frenzy over a musician was unheard of, the term cropped up as a way to suggest some sort of medical cause to the madness. The madness would subside when Liszt retired from the stage to concentrate on composing, but his personal life continued to be interesting, from an abortive marriage to a Russian princess (when both were already married) to time spent in religious life.

Liszt would make an interesting subject for a movie. So why not make it more interesting by including phallic hallucinations and Richard Wagner as a vampire Hitler? That was apparently Ken Russell's thinking, as he wrote and directed this for release in the same year as Tommy (one suspects a visit or two to the Acid Queen). The proximity of the two films also explains how Roger Daltrey wound up playing Liszt. It does not explain how Ringo Starr wound up playing the pope who ultimately denied Liszt's marriage to the Russian princess. Though a visit or two to the Acid Queen might.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 14: Mister Lonely

A Michael Jackson impersonator working in Paris meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who invites him back to the Scottish commune that she runs with her husband, Charlie Chaplin, and daughter Shirley Temple. In an apparently unrelated plot, there are a group of nuns jumping out of airplanes (without parachutes) to prove that God will protect you if you're true of heart.

James Fox (who is pretty much the reigning British "hey, it's that guy!") plays the Pope (I'm assuming Benedict XVI based on it being a 2007 release), while other notable performers include Samantha Morton as Marilyn and Werner Herzog as a priest (impersonator, I assume). The film is probably most notable as being written and directed by Harmony Korine, who made a splash about 20 years ago for his screenplay for Kids (written as a teenager himself). I hadn't thought of him in years, though he also made 2012's Spring Breakers, about a group of college kids who commit robbery to fund their spring break trip, which I vaguely remember. No pope in that one, sorry to say.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 13: In nome del popolo sovrano

This Italian film from 1990 tells the story of the 19th century attempt at forming an independent Roman republic that the French and Austrians thwart by returning Piux IX to the Vatican.  The story is less about that than the lives of some of the republicans and their attempt to escape Rome once the French arrive. Someone does actually play the pope, so I suppose that's something.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 12: Night Shapes

A papal visit to Berlin is the backdrop for stories about a variety of people trying to find happiness one night during the visit.  It's not clear to me that the pope's visit has any influence over the characters and their actions, the visit may just be a framing device. Based on the very basic plot description this film reminded me of Night on Earth, as far as the structure of the film goes.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 11: Immoral Tales

Four erotic tales set in different time periods make up this film. The last tale is about an orgy involving members of the Borgia family, including Pope Alexander VI. The only notable thing about the movie is that one of its stars is Paloma Picasso, daughter of Pablo. The film even plays of this in its tag line, "You don't have to go to Rome to see a X-Rated Picasso."  

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 10: Nun of That

Sister Kelly Wrath is a nun with anger issues, which lead her to getting gunned down in an alley. But she's not quite dead yet, as after meeting the likes of Jesus and Gandhi in heaven, she's sent back to Earth to join the Order of the Black Habit, a group of supernatural vigilante nuns who are planning on exacting revenge against the mob for some reason.

Veteran B-movie actor Lloyd Kaufman plays the pope, whose role in this whole thing isn't suggested in the plot synopsis. This may also be the only movie I've ever seen whose lone shooting location is Cranston, Rhode Island.  

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 9: The March of Todd-AO

Todd-AO was developed in the 1950s as a large film format to create movies in competition with the existing large film standard, Cinerama. Todd-AO films were shot with one camera using 70 millimeter film. The final print would also incorporate six channels of sound, giving the films a level of visual and audio quality beyond the average 35mm prints.

Several films were shot in Todd-AO, including many musical adaptations (such as Oklahoma and The Sound of Music). The larger film size required the movies be shown in theaters with appropriate equipment, and as movie theaters at the time were often single-screen, you'd have Todd-AO films playing for months at a time, so shorts were filmed in Todd-AO to run in front of the feature and provide new content.

This film is one of them, and one of the subjects was the coronation of Pope John XXIII.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 8: Joshua

This 2002 film that I'd never heard of is about a stranger who comes to a small town and begins to bring the community together and perform the odd miracle. The idea that he may be the second coming of Christ reaches the ears of the local priest, who lost a position at the Vatican and now dedicates himself to proving that Joshua is a fraud. I guess that would get him back into the Curia's good graces?

Anyway, veteran actor Giancarlo Giannini plays the pope, who winds up meeting Joshua and learns his true identity. F. Murray Abraham plays the suspicious local priest, and the pair of them being in this underscores that, in acting, sometimes it's just about getting paid.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 7: The Shoes of the Fisherman

A Ukrainian archbishop, released after 20 years in Siberia, comes to Rome at the request of a young and troubled priest. The archbishop meets the pope, who takes a shine to the archbishop, and elevates him to cardinal. When the pope dies, the Ukrainian finds himself elected pope, and as Kiril I has to face his own doubts about his ability to lead, the increasing seriousness of the problems besetting his young priest friend, and worsening relations between the Soviet Union and China.

Anthony Quinn plays Kiril, while Sir John Gielgud plays the previous pope. So a pontiff twofer today. I've read the Morris West novel this is based on (apparently before I started the book log), which I remember liking in a vague sort of way.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness

Day 6: Foul Play

I've never seen this Chevy Chase - Goldie Hawn vehicle, and didn't expect it to involve a pope, but it turns out the movie is like what you'd get if you turned The DaVinci Code into a screwball comedy.  

A librarian (Hawn) is given a tape and soon afterwards finds herself followed by a dwarf and an albino. She brings a less than stellar member of the police (Chase) into the picture, and together they learn of a plot to kill the Pope when he's in town seeing a production of The Mikado. I assume the dwarfs and albinos are working together. San Francisco bigwig Cyril Mangin plays Pius XII.

The only other item of note is a bit of a coincidence: CBS scheduled a prime-time airing of Foul Play during the week of the John Paul II assassination attempt. Not surprisingly, they decided to air it later in the summer.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Close-Up, Your Holiness

Day 5: Luther

No, not the crime drama starring Idris Elba (sadly), but rather a 2003 biopic on the godfather of Protestantism starring Joseph Fiennes. The unpronouncable Uwe Ochsenknecht plays Pope Leo X, who as you might imagine isn't on board with young Luther and all of his theses.

More notable is that this appears to be Peter Ustinov's final film, as he appears playing Frederick the Wise.   

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Close-Up, Your Holiness

Day 4; Gone with the Pope

The story is pretty straightforward - four ex-cons plan to kidnap the pope and charge $1 per Catholic as ransom - and I've never heard of Lorenzo Dardado, who plays the pope (which makes sense, as it's his only film credit on IMDB). But the story of the film is interesting.

The movie was written and directed by Duke Mitchell, a singer and actor who dabbled in making indie/exploitation films (most notably 1978's The Executioner, which I've not heard of but is apparently a cult fave). In this case, he apparently wrote and shot as he could, using spare film and writing scenes on whatever he had at hand. He also traded on future profits for access to at least one shooting location.

That turned out to be a pretty bad bet for the location owner, as Mitchell died in 1981, almost 30 years before this film was released. In the intervening time all of the material for the film- negatives, rough cuts, etc. - were in a garage. The producers (including Sage Stallone, son of Sly) had to put the film together with what they had on hand (and what they didn't - they were apparently missing several reels of rough cut footage).

What reviews are out there are OK, but I suppose you have to grade on a curve for a film with this sort of production history. 

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Close-Up, Your Holiness

Day 3: Pope Leo XIII Being Carried in Chair Through Upper Loggia, No. 101

The first documentary in our series, this short from the American Mutoscope Company is exactly what it says it is: a film of Leo XIII in a chair that's being carried through a doorway. American Mutoscope is better known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, which would later just be known as Biograph Studios, a launching pad for many of film's early stars (including Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore) and directors (like D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett).

But it made its earliest mark with one to two minute documentary shorts of things like an old Italian man being dragged around in a chair. For what its worth, this 1898 film made Leo the first pope to ever appear on film.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Close-up, Your Holiness

Day 2: Cagliostro

Based on a real-life figure involved in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace (among other things), the count in this 1975 film has developed a number of supernatural powers through occult studies, and is traveling Europe healing the sick and working with a secret society that aims to free the continent from oppression. This, not surprisingly, catches the attention of Europe monarch and Pope Clement XIII, who move to eliminate the count. They do succeed in imprisoning him, but with surprising results.

The pope is played by Robert Alda, who is probably best known as the father of Alan Alda, of M*A*S*H fame.


 

I've been having my annual flirtation with not doing Lentorama, but in looking back I've seen I've done it, in one form or another, since 2007. So I kind of feel compelled to do it again.

Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Close-up, Your Holiness

Yup, 40 days about movies featuring a pope, either real or fictional. Let's get started.

Day 1: Apollo 13

So you're probably wondering to yourself, how did Ron Howard squeeze the Pope into his dramatic retelling of this dramatic failed mission to the moon? He pops up in a voice-over where Walter Cronkite says the Pope asked people to pray for the astronauts. Somehow this enough to earn the "pope" keyword on IMDB.

We could be in for a long 40 days.