Need info on a movie about a fictional Pope

  • Thread starter Thread starter dennisknapp
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

dennisknapp

Guest
Hi all,

I have been wondering about a movie I saw a while back. It was about a Pope who puts on civilian cloths and decides to take walk out side the Vatican. Somehow he gets caught up in the troubles of a small Italian village. The village is under the rule of corrupt bandits who do not allow the citizens to build a means to retrieve water from a nearby stream. The Pope takes it upon himself to help the village, and so on.

Anyone know the name of this movie?

Peace
 
Could it be The Shoes of the Fisherman, 1968 Director: Michael Anderson Starring: Anthony Quinn, Oskar Werner, David Janssen, Vittorio De Sica, Leo McKern, Sir John Gielgud ?
 
Could it be the 1985 movie “Saving Grace”?

Plot summary (from two different sites):
  1. “A newly-elected Pope Leo XIV finds himself accidentally locked out of the Vatican. Unknown to the outside world, he winds up in an impoverished Italian village, where his adventures ultimately teach the Pope and his new friends some important lessons about friendship and self-esteem.”
  2. “A troubled man, hemmed in by the protocol of his position, Pope Leo XIV (Conti) impulsively opts for a working holiday. Moved by a little girl’s story of her village - stricken by an earthquake and without a priest - the undercover Holy Father hitchhikes deep into the (picture postcard) Italian south, and proceeds to preach the protestant work ethic to people whose major source of income is government aid derived from the odd staged epidemic. Through his arduous efforts - ‘he’s a Pope who smiles, a Pope who cries, a Pope who loves, hates, and learns to love again’ - Leo sets the villagers in motion once more.”
 
This synopsis really makes me think that Saving Grace is the movie you’re looking for:

“Tom Conti is unhappy with his job – he feels empty, dissatisfied and disillusioned. Caught up in the routine of everyday life he’s lost touch with the world. This is bad, because Tome Conti is the Pope! When he inadevertantly locks himself out of the Vatican, penniless and in street clothes, he seizes the opportunity to travel to a remote village that has no priest. What he finds is a place of lost hope; its people forgotten and ignored – a town of delinquents, derelicts and bums. While Vatican personnel scurry to try and find him, the Pope guards his true identity, desperately seeking to understand the people he leads.”
 
Well, after finding the movie (hopefully the one you were looking for), I have ordered my own copy of Saving Grace. As soon as it arrives, I’ll let you know what I think of it.
 
I think the Shoes of the Fisherman meets the criteria too. Based on the Morris West novel (novel, of course, is better than the book), the pope a) spent time in a gulag and b) wanders around Italy in plain clothes just talking to people, and c) sells off all the Vatican art treasures to avert a nuclear war.
 
The movie I was looking for was *Saving Grace. *

I just watched The Shoes of the Fisherman and it was really good. I highly recommend it!

Peace
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top