Pope John Paul II (2005) (TV)

Director:

John Kent Harrison

Writers (WGA):

John Kent Harrison (teleplay)
Francesco Contaldo (earlier teleplay)
(more)

Release Date:

4 December 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Following the premature death of his mother, Karol Wojtyla is brought up by his father in the Polish...

Plot Keywords:

Roman Catholic | Poland | Holy Mess | Injury | Solidarity Movement

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Jon Voight	...	Pope John Paul II / Karol Wojtyla
Cary Elwes	...	Young Karol Wojtyla
Ben Gazzara	...	Cardinal Agostino Casaroli
Christopher Lee	...	Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski
Vittoria Belvedere	...	Eva
James Cromwell	...	Cardinal Adam Sapieha
Daniele Pecci	...	Roman
Ettore Bassi	...	Gapa
Chiara Conti	...	Anna
Valeria Cavalli	...	Teresa
Marcin Kuzminski	...	Mikal
Giulietta Revel	...	Halina
Robert Gonera	...	Tadeusz
Christopher Good	...	Cardinal Konig
Fabrizio Bucci	...	Krysztof Zachuta
Giuliano Gemma	...	Navarro Valls
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Giulio Base	...	Doctor
Juliusz Chrzastowski	...	Jerzy
Marcus J. Cotterell
Gabriele Ferzetti	...	Cardinal Konig
Bartosz Glogowski	...	Officer SS
Mikolaj Grabowski	...	Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Krzysztof Janczar	...	Dobry
Romuald Andrzej Klos	...	Worker in mina
Marta Król	...	Danuta
Izabela Kuna	...	Emilia Wojtylowa
Jacek Lenartowicz	...	Lech Walesa
Maciej Marczewski	...	Marek
Robert Mazurkiewicz	...	Pope's father
Wenanty Nosul	...	Stanislaw Dziwisz
Francis Pardeilhan	...	Engineer
Daniele Petruccioli	...	Tommaso
Krzysztof Pieczynski	...	Czerny
Nicola Pistoia
Harald Posch	...	Hans Frank
Giampiero Rotoli	...	Second Young Doctor
Mariusz Sibiga	...	Daszkow
David Traylor	...	Worker
Massimiliano Ubaldi	...	Alì Agcà
Slawomir Zapala

Directed by
John Kent Harrison

Writing credits (WGA)
John Kent Harrison		(teleplay)
Francesco Contaldo		(earlier teleplay)
Salvatore Basile		(additional material) &
Francesco Arlanch		(additional material)

Produced by
Tarak Ben Ammar	....	associate producer
Luca Bernabei	....	producer
Matilde Bernabei	....	producer
Stephen Davis	....	producer
Chris Grabowski	....	co-producer
Slawomir Józwik	....	co-producer
Anselmo Parrinello	....	line producer

Original Music by
Marco Frisina

Cinematography by
Fabrizio Lucci

Film Editing by
Henk Van Eeghen

Casting by
Fabiola Banzi
Julia Duff
Katarzyna Janicka
Molly Lopata
Cornelia von Braun

Production Design by
Pier Luigi Basile		(as Pierluigi Basile)

Set Decoration by
Ettore Guerrieri

Costume Design by
Enrica Biscossi

Makeup Department
Jeff Goodwin	....	makeup artist: Jon Voight
Jeff Goodwin	....	prosthetics: Jon Voight
Ryan Nicholson	....	prosthetic effects designer

Production Management
Janusz B. Czech	....	production manager
Mirko D'Angeli	....	unit manager
Federico Foti	....	production manager
Rosario Ranieri	....	post-production supervisor
Simona Sciannimanico	....	unit manager
Corrado Trionfera	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Inti Carboni	....	first assistant director: second unit
Sergio Ercolessi	....	first assistant director
Edoardo Ferretti	....	second second assistant director
Krzysztof Lukaszewicz	....	assistant director
Jan Michelini	....	second unit director
Andrea Pagani	....	second second assistant director
Barbara Pastrovich	....	second assistant director
Julia Popkiewicz	....	assistant director
Fiona Mary Spillard	....	assistant director
Ewa Wlodarz	....	assistant director

Art Department
Cristiano Donzelli	....	storyboard artist
Emanuele Guerrini	....	construction crew

Sound Department
Paolo Amici	....	sound effects editor
Maurizio Argentieri	....	sound
Vladislav Boyadjiev	....	ProTools engineer
Andrea Lancia	....	sound re-recording mixer
Chris Navarro	....	adr recordist
David Quadroli	....	sound effects editor
Fabrizio Quadroli	....	sound effects editor
Marco Streccioni	....	sound engineer
Eric Thompson	....	adr mixer
Dave Tinsley	....	supervising sound editor

Special Effects by
Tiberio Angeloni	....	special effects
Franco Galiano	....	special effects supervisor

Visual Effects by
George Bloom	....	visual effects supervisor
Lori Freitag-Hild	....	digital compositor
James Holt	....	lead Massive artist
Nicki Kreitzman	....	digital compositor
Stefano Marinoni	....	visual effects
Craig Weiss	....	visual effects supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Stefano Lombardo	....	loader
Flaviano Ricci	....	grip
Simone Scarozza	....	second assistant camera
Marcin Studniarek	....	assistant camera
Luciano Teolis	....	assistant camera
Massimiliano Trevis	....	camera operator

Casting Department
Fabiola Banzi	....	casting: Italy
Katarzyna Janicka	....	casting: Poland
Cornelia von Braun	....	casting: Germany

Editorial Department
Nicola Bonifati	....	assistant: editor
Lorenzo Ciccinato	....	assistant editor
Fabrizio Donati	....	on-line editor

Transportation Department
Massimiliano Rocchetti	....	transportation captain: Poland

Other crew
Barbara Ancarani	....	production coordinator
Sabrina Canale	....	personal assistant to director
Paulina Czech	....	production assistant
Saverio D'Ercole	....	story editor
Andrea Grazzani	....	location manager
Pierpaolo Marcelli	....	footage research supervisor
Paolo Merosi	....	extras supervisor
Johanna Silverman	....	assistant: Mr. Cromwell
Anna Skuza	....	production assistant
Tracy Young	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Baltmedia
• CBS Productions
• Granada Media
• Grupa Filmowa Baltmedia & Studio Filmowe Projektor
• Lux Vide
• Quinta Communications USA Inc.
• Rai Fiction
• SF Projektor
• Telewizja Polska (TVP)

Distributors

• Studio Interfilm (2006) (Poland) (theatrical)
• CBS Television (2005) (USA) (TV)
• Rai Fiction (2005) (Italy) (TV)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2007) (Finland) (TV)

Special Effects

• CBS Digital
• M.A.G. Special Effects

Other Companies

• Elizabeth Bardsley & Associates  script annotation
• Sud Ovest Records S.r.l.  music production

Also Known As:

Giovanni Paolo II (Italy)
Jan Pawel II (Poland)
Juan Pablo II (Argentina) [es]
Påven Johannes Paulus II (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Paavi Johannes Paavali II (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

Italy:201 min (2 parts) | Poland:171 min (4 episodes) | USA:186 min (including commercials) | Poland:127 min (theatrical version)

Country:

Italy | USA | Poland

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Augustus)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company:

Baltmedia

Trivia:

CBS trimmed the first installment of the miniseries for the Vatican screening, bringing the four-hour film down to 90 minutes.

Goofs:

Continuity: When John Paul gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing after he is elected, there are 16 people standing on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. But in the following wide shot from St. Peter's Square, only two people can be seen on the balcony.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Catherine Zeta-Jones/Franz Ferdinand (#31.3)" (2005)

great performances, good TV job

I dare to think, that my opinion (I am a Pole, coming from Krakow) might be interesting for other watchers of this movie. So here are my remarks.

Polish historical background is shown properly, although movie only marks milestones of Polish history after 2nd World War. Krakow is shown in realistic way, main scenes are shot in REAL historic places f.eg.:

- Pope 'window' chat on Franciszkanska street

- Krakow's ghetto 'cleaning' on Pilsudski bridge

- meeting with Wyszynski in Corpus Christi church's garden

I am under impression of Cary Elwes performance. I always regarded him as a comedy actor. But he shows very good picture of young Wojtyla. On the beginning he is rather 'flat'. But he is getting better getting 'older'. He is in fact very similar to young Wojtyla. Very good job, Cary.

If Cary did good work, Jon Voight have done excellent work. Producers have chosen conclave as the moment of replacing main actor. It is very good idea. Jon Voight perfectly studied mimicry of old Wojtyla, his way of walking (before and after hip operation). He showed us in realistic way growing influence of Parkinson disease. I fully agree he deserves Emmy award. His last public 'dumb' appearance on Vatican window is very touching and memorable picture.

Authors of movie did extremely good research work. Movie quotes several well known memorable pictures of Wojtyla, f. eg:

- reading a book in canoe - canoe altar mess - making a 'glasses' from hand by Pope - described above last public appearance

Sometimes (especially when light dimes and Voight is taken from profile) main actor became so similar to Wojtyla, that you might have impression to watch documentary.

Unfortunately special effects are bad. Pictures of crowd (f.eg. Warsaw mass, St Peter Square) are artificial, flying doves are artificial, German airplanes over Krakow are also too artificial. Maybe it is not visible in TV, but it looks really bad in theater.

And finally last remark. This movie is now distributed in polish cinemas (Poland is probably the only country in the world which broadcasts this movie in theaters). I do not know exactly what is the difference between versions shown in USA in TV and 'polish' theatrical version. I can see it is much shorter (127 min) Unfortunately it is also dubbed. I could not hear polish accent of Jon Voight. If I could vote for main actors only my score would be 10/10. But whole movie (although very good as a TV movie) is not perfect for reasons described above. It deserves strong 8.