Were the Peasants Really So Clean?

The Middle Ages in Film Author(s): Greta Austin Reviewed work(s): Source: Film History, Vol. 14, No. 2, Film and Religion (2002), pp. 136-141 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3815616 . Accessed: 08/03/2012 15:15
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Film History, Volume 14, pp. 136-141, 2002. Copyright John Libbey ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in Malaysia

were clean? The

the Middle
Austin Greta

peasants
Ages
in

really
film

so

ovies aboutthe EuropeanMiddle Ages are moderncreations.Theytend to profoundly reflectthe anxietiesand preoccupationsof theirmoderncreatorsratherthan those of the people who liveda thousandyearsago. All same, medievalfilmsenable medievalists todayto imagine the past, and are useful because they enabled the How can this be? Although historicalimagination. medievalfilms may have the redeemingfeatureof being fun,do they have anyvalue beyondentertainment? Is it not a paradoxto criticisemedievalfilms to theirfailure recreatefaithfully fortheirahistoricity, a historicalpast, but also to praise them for their usefulness in allowingthose who study the Middle Ages to imaginethe past?

realism- are flawedin threeways, as comparedto to scholarlymonographs.One, it is moredifficult tell true a whether filmis historically to the extantsources. Filmsdo not have footnotes, and they do not tellus wheretheygot theirinformation. are less 'transThey Whereasmedievalists thanare monographs. parent' willoften contextualisetheirargumentsin terms of currentdebates, and also may make explicittheir moreimpreciseand own biases, filmsare frequently studunclearabouttheirsources - theyare historical ies withthe footnotes omitted.As a result,it is often of to difficult ascertainthe reliability films. Tothisobjection,however,itcan be countered can thatthe curiousmedievalist check up on the film. knowaboutJoan of Arcfromthe Whatdo we actually extantrecords?Did she have visions of Jesus as a The problem with films about the smallchild?Was hertownransackedby the English Middle Ages as a child,and did she witnessa rape?Youmightnot There are essentiallytwo types of films about the trustthe versionof the storyin TheMessenger(1999) to Middle Ages. One type of filmpurports represent butyou can fact-checkthatfilmquiteeasily. Thereis a second problemwithfilmswhichtry a medieval reality.Whetherfictionalor historical to show us how to representmedievallife and culture:they tend to or drama,itclaimsexplicitly implicitly accurate. In other words, they things were back then. Recent examples of such be less historically and TheName often make fewereffortsthan do scholarlyworksto filmswouldincludeBraveheart (1995) of the Rose (1986), as well as the manyfilmsabout representmedieval life in ways consistent withthe sources forthe period.For Joan of Arc.The othertype of medievalfilmis the existingvisualand written has film ironic whichmakes no pretensesto depictingthe instance, MelGibson in Braveheart remarkably were'. In MontyPython MiddleAges as they 'really and the HolyGrail (1991),forinstance,the knightsdo in Professor the Religion GretaAustinis Assistant not ride horses, but pretendto ride horses as one at Department Bucknell Uniersityin Lewisburg, with her She bangs coconut shells to imitate the sounds of Pennsylvania. received Ph.D. distinction from inthehistory Christianity Columbia of in University hooves. Similarly, First Knight (1995),the crowdat who in 2000. She is a medievalist studis Catholic does 'thewave',likecrowds the joustingtournament Endowof the canonlaw.With assistance a National footballgames today. at American for mentforthe Humanities Fellowship 2003 she is Forthe medievalist,the firsttype of medieval of a finishing bookon two canonlawyers the 11th to films - ones which aim at some type of historical Correspondence gaustin@bucknell.edu. century.

Werethe peasants really so clean?-Th Midl A f Were the peasants really so clean? The Middle Ages in film without clean and shinylong hairforsomeone living indoorplumbing.Medievalfilms also take liberties withhistorical sequence, ordo notreproduceevents inthe same orderor manneras the textualhistorical recordspresentthem.As RobertRosenstone notes, most historical films'arealmostguaranteedto leave the historian the periodcryingfoul'.1 of Inaddition, they mightadd events whichmay or may not have occurred,since the written records simplydo nottellus. Forinstance,inthe Nameof the Bernardo Rose the unsavoury Gui,meets Inquisitor, his Maker when a mob pushes his carriageover a cliff.Although 14thcenturywas unlucky the enough to havean inquisitor namedBernardo whowrote Gui, we a manualfor inquisitors, do not knowfor certain howhe died.True, TheNameof the Rose is fictional. Yetotherfilms,such as the manyones about Joan of Arc,are based on historicalrecords,2and even these movies compress or alter in some ways the historical sequences of events recordedin a written details.We do not knowwhether text,or add further
Joan witnessed a rape - perhaps she did - but the

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available recordsdo not tell us.3 Needless to say, written records and modern narrative accounts also elide, compress and alter what reallyhappened, history it as thatunknowable, is was. Eachmedium,visualand written, inevireally in tablylimited 'itseffortsto representthe past'.4Yet itcannotbe deniedthatmanyfilmsaboutthe Middle reliable- not as trueto Ages are not as historically the extantsources - as are most scholarlymonographs. At the most basic level, the peasants in medievalfilmstend to be remarkably clean. The thirdproblemwith medievalfilms is that they usuallytell stories not about the MiddleAges, but about modernWesternlife in a perioddress. A filmaboutthe Middle faithful Ages can neverbe truly to the extantsources - not just because we know little relatively aboutthe period,butalso because we, the makersand consumers of the film,live in such an alienworld the Middle to Ages. Accustomedto the we conventions the noveland of modernnarrative, of have considerablydifferent expectationsof a story thandid people inthe Middle Ages. To put itanother to way:if Europeansinthe year 1100 had the ability makemovies,theywouldnot makethe same movie as Stephen Spielbergwould make about life in the wouldhavefilmed too, year1100.Chaucer, probably a great movie, but its inside jokes - such as about good-old-boyclerics who like to hunt- would not necessarilymake sense to us today.

the Ages in the movies Fig.1. Sean Consequently, Middle and in are often modernity drag,Sean Connery up in Connery F. got Abraham a hood and cloak (as in the Name of the Rose and Murray don cloaks and FirstKnight). Apartfromevokinga certainmedieval hoods Name in of mood, medievalfilmsusuallydo not concernthem- theRose selves with'reconstructing past at all,at least not (Twentieth the in the detailed,this-is-what-they-had-for-lunch-andCentury-Fox, on this-is-the-actual-china-they-had-it way of, say 1986). Scorsese's TheAge of Innocence (1993)',as Arthur the comments. Rather, stories and the conLindley modern. cerns of medievalfilmsare often distinctly The subjectof medievalfilmsis 'the present,notthe past'.5Lindley providesan excellentexampleof this: inthe openingsequence of TheSeventhSeal (1957), the returning CrusaderAntonioplays chess on a figureof stormybeach witha white-facedallegorical Death. Althoughthe date is purportedly 1349, the concerns of the film,Lindley suggests, are those of 'the sub-atomic early 1950s, with universaldeath loomingout of the northern sky'. Shouldmovies aboutthe Middle Ages be dismissed because they play out modern concerns? Shouldwe understandTheSeventhSeal only as an of and allegory, dismiss its portrayal the BlackDeath, of the flagellants, of the effects of the Crusades? and Perhaps,butwe shouldthen haveto throwout many carefully-researched monographsas well. Inallfairness, scholarlyworks about the MiddleAges, as muchas popular films,arealso productsof theirown historical and place. Inhis bookabout time particular the medievalscholars of the 20th century(Inventing

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Fi. 2. RBennt . Ekerot Max and von Sydow play in for stakes Ingmar The Bergman's Seventh (Det Seal Sjunde Inseglet, Svensk Filmindustri, 1957).
-.- --.. . '

Greta Austin

Middle Cantor driveshome the point Ages), Norman that these medievalistshave 'fashionedtheirinterpretationsof the MiddleAges out of the emotional wellspringsof theirlives,and these liveswere inturn conditionedby the vast social and political upheavals of the twentiethcentury,especially duringthe darktimes from1914 to 1945'.6Ifmedievalists to are criticise medieval films for reflectingmodern conof cerns, they should also be critical theirown work. At the same time, scholarlymonographsgenerally to the go to greaterefforts understand past on itsown terms, and to be awareof theirown modernbiases. morefaithful Theyarealso, as notedabove, generally to the extantsources. The advantages of films about the Middle Ages So whybother withfilmsaboutthe Middle Ages? Why not relyexclusivelyupon the writtenand visual records and medievalists' of interpretation these, since tend to be morecarefulabout scholarly monographs understandingtheir biases and more true to the

sources than are films?I would aroriginalprimary gue, however,that filmsabout the MiddleAges are valuableforthe medievalist and the non-medievalist - as a supplementto scholarlymonographsand for sources, and that films are important primary differentreasons than are these other sources of history. I willaddress firstthe more problematic cateto gory,those filmswhichpurport representthe medieval past unironically, then turnto the ironic and whichalso, I believe,can potentially have confilms, siderablevalue. films are useful to the First,representational medievalist even iftheybungleallthe evidence,and get events in the wrong order - for an important reason. A filmabout the Middle Ages can inspireits viewersto ask questionsabout history. entertainBy them inthe subject, ing its viewersa filmcan interest and then promptthem to ask questions, to correct and questionboththe facts and the storytold by the film.Herlihy contends that historical filmsare more seductivethanhistorical monographsbecause films

Were the peasants really so clean? The Middle Ages in film drawin theirviewersand make them 'eyewitnesses of the events portrayed'. Because viewers 'pretend thatthey directly observe the historic happenings... filmnot only creates illusionbut also the historical Yet extends its domainto includeits audience'.7 this can be made of historical novels as well as critique many historicalmonographs,which may also seduce theirreaders.8 does notnecessarily followthat It the viewerorthe readerwilluncritically accept everythingrepresentedinthe filmorbook.Instead,the film may inspireviewers to ask questions about what reallyhappened. Herlihy gives, I believe, too little creditto the criticalcapabilitiesof viewers.Viewers may leave the filmwonderingabout medievalwar, about RobinHoodas a historical figure,oraboutthe Arthurian and they mayeven be inspired to legends, check the facts representedinthe film.Furthermore, the medievalfilmmay inspire viewersalso to investioccur gate howthe factsfittogether.Didevents really in the order as they did in the film?Whatactually happened? Was that what it was reallylike?Was thereinfact an inquisitor name Gui?Didhe die at the hands of a mob? The great strengthof filmsforthe the is non-specialist thatthey may intrigue viewersto the pointwhere they ask further questions and do some footwork theirown. Forthe specialistorthe on medieval films can also serve the same student, inaccurate. The purpose,even ifthey are historically medievalfilmcan inspire themto double-checktheir of interpretation the existingevidence, and to ask, 'Is my visionof the past correct'? Nevertheless, some films do take pains to to representthe Middle Ages inways thatare faithful the existingsources. These filmsare extremely useto ful, particularly the medievalist,because they enit courage us to imaginethe past. Formedievalists is to considerthe broaderpicture, important extremely the worldof the MiddleAges, because the Middle surviveonly in fragments,as a Ages in particular ruinedcastle here, a charterthere, a music manuscript there. For instance, the BrotherCadfael TV series and The Name of the Rose depict life in a Benedictine monastery:how the brothersate together, chanted the Psalms together, fell asleep while chanting,and workedat different tasks. The fragmentsof medievalcultureare put togetherin a way that allows watchersto visualisethe past as a rather than as fragmentsof living,breathingreality, the past, the surviving illuminations manuscripts or or stone wallsor tapestries.9 Medievalfilms - at last some of them, the carefulones - encourage us to make a historically For leap of imagination. the specialist workingon issues and problems,the medievalfilm veryspecific can serve as a reminderthat Europe duringthe MiddleAges was not a 'problem',not a historical question posed by historians,but ratheran entire universe,populatedby living,breathinghumanbeand Peter ings. Inhis essay 'Learning Imagination', Brownhas written the need, 'inthe middleof an of
exacting history course ... to take time off; to let the

139

to run; imagination to give serious attention reading books that widen our sympathies,that trainus to imaginewithgreaterprecisionwhat it is liketo be human in situationsvery different fromour own'.1 Thefilmaboutthe Middle allowsus to imagine Ages a worldquite different fromour own, in its entirety, and to imaginewhat it was liketo be human in a situation fromourown. verydifferent The filmTheSorceress (1988) is an excellent film exampleof the accuratehistorical whichencourThis ages us to makesuch a leap of imagination. film bringsalivethe worldof medievalCatholicbelief in
the countryside - 'folk'belief, some might call it- and

the workings the Inquisition. filmtellsthe story of The of a Dominican friar's effortsto stop Frenchvillagers fromworshipinga greyhoundas a saint. It begins withthe storyof the dog-saint,SaintGuinefort. the In scenes, a baby lies in a cradle,where it is opening Whena snake creeps up guarded by a greyhound. behind the baby, the dog attacks the snake and saves the baby'slife.Butwhenthe baby'snurseand parentsdiscoverthe dog, they assume thatthe dog has injured baby, and they killit - only then to the realise that the dog saved the baby's life. Cut to peasants veneratingthe site of the dog's grave. Whena zealous Dominican comes to town, he friar hears confessions fromthe village-folk, and learns about this dog-saint. Unlikethe calm, kindly village priest,he sets outto eradicatebeliefinthe dog-saint. Thiscrusade bringshimheadlongintoa conflict with the local herbalist,who happens to be extremely attractive wellas to perform as over ill healingrituals children at the dog-saint's grave. The friar,who seems to have a crushon the beautiful has herbalist, her arrestedas a witch.Allends for the best, however,withthe herbalist released,the friar dispatched, and the village-peoplefree again to worshiptheir dog-saint,St. Guinefort. TheSorceress is a remarkably achistorically curate movie. It is based on an account by a 13th friar centuryDominican namedStephenof Bourbon,

140 and probablyinspired by a book called Le saint Ievrier: Guinefort, guerisseurd'enfantsdepuis le Xllle Jean-ClaudeSchmitt.11 Schmittexamines siecle, by the storytoldbyStephenandthenthe archaeological and textualevidence for worshipof the dog-saint persistingup throughthe 19thcentury.Some of this filmis based on historical evidence (thelegend of St. the some of it (the sexual tension Guinefort, friar); between the friarand the herbalist,her imprisonment, and some of the sub-plots)is not. One might quibblethat Stephen describes the herbalistas an old woman (vetula) and thatthere is no evidence of any sexualtensionbetweenthem.Butso what?Ifthe filmmakers introduced sexual subplotto keep the a movie more interesting,does it reallychange the story?Theessential conflict betweenthe folkreligious practices of the countrysideand the official Catholicism of the rapidly-growinginstitutional Church- remainsthe same. Furthermore, film the shows how the inquisition workedin pracprobably tice, with a friarcoming to a town, eager to find heresy, and withthe townspeopleengaging in their formof religious own idiosyncratic worship. We should ask all of these questions in reading, but sometimes the filmforces us to re-readthe texts in new ways. Whatwere the anxietiesand concerns of the inquisitor? Whatgave him authority? Howdidthe localpriestreact?What wouldthetownstell the inquisitor? For instance, although people Stephen says nothingof a villagepriest,TheSorceress has one, a deeply sympathetic figurewho mediates between the zealous inquisitor and the existed,but townspeople.Thevillagepriestprobably The Stephenis silenton the matter. Although Sorceress presents only one interpretation ratherthan alit lowing a varietyof interpretations, does fulfilla it our valuablefunction: encourages us to reconsider of the historicalsources, as well as of readings At Schmitt'smonograph. a broaderlevel,itcompels was us to imaginewhatthe Inquisition really and like, In whatitmeantto liveunderthe Inquisition. thisway, filmswhichpurport repto accurateand inaccurate resent medievallife can both have value, eitherby viewersto questionthe facts and the repreinspiring sentationof the facts, or by allowing us- inthe case films- to imaginea verydifferent world. of reliable even the second type of film,the ironic Finally, filmswhichdo not tryto be realisticin any way, can sometimes be useful to the medievalist.Although they make no pretenses whatsoeverto creatingan illusion historical of reality, can succeed at never they

Greta Austin the letting viewer forgetthatthe Middle Ages can only be imagined,inadequately, us today. MontyPyby thonand the HolyGrail, instance,goes out of its for to remindyou that it is a modernfilmwith a way modern perspectiveon a fictitiousEnglandof 932 CE. In it the stock figure of the documentary,the academic historian,appears in the middle of the story, only to be struckdown by Lancelot.We are reminded the Middle that Ages mustalways,to some in extent,be modernity drag,even forthe most serious scholars. some of these ironicfilms inFurthermore, clude moderncommentary, which call attentionto in largerstructures medievalsociety and the fictions of narrative itself. In MontyPython,for instance, a with a cart unleashes a Marxist peasant labouring tirade upon the obliviousArthur. When Arthur reI mindsthe peasant, 'Well, am the king',the peasant sharplyretorts,'How'dyou get to be king, eh? By the exploiting workers, hangingonto outdatedimperialistdogma, and perpetuating economic and the social differencesin oursociety!'After Arthur strikes an ineffective blowin frustration, peasant retorts the sharply:'Now we see the violence inherentin the attention deeply-embedto system!'The historian's ded structures 'mentalites', historian's and the modern perspective on lordship, and the historian's Achilles'heel, his desireto stand inthe middleof the filmand providenarrative it structure: is all there in and Python the HolyGrail. Monty Inthis way, medievalfilmscan be profoundly useful to the medievalist.Filmsmay not have footand they notes, they may be historically unreliable, modernin theirperspectiveand may be irrevocably sensibilities.Yet, at the end of the day, most are enjoyable,and, if truthbe told, they are often more And, monograph. engagingthanreadinga scholarly iffilmsaboutthe Middle Ages areenjoyable, theycan accomplishseveralthings.Evenifa filmis historically unreliable,it can encourage us to ask questions about how we know about what happened. It can awakena historical abouttimeswhichmight curiosity seem verydistantfromours. Filmswhichare generreliable serve another,valuablefuncallyhistorically tion: they allow us to make the historicalleap of and to begin to imaginea worldproimagination, fromours, one whichusuallyexists foundlydifferent in fragmentary only pieces. Even some ironicfilms view whichmakefewefforts recreateanother to world can provide modern perspectives onto medieval about the injustices problems- the peasant ranting

Were the peasants~ really so~clean? ~~~~~~~~~Ages ~~s! /?M The Middle ~~~~ in film ~~ ~~ ~ -ww,~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
of medieval society. In this way, films about the Middle Ages, a time very alien from our own, can accomplish a number of ends: to awaken our sympathies and our historicalcuriosity,to make us aware of our profoundly modern perspective, to allow us to imagine the past - and, perhaps above all, to enjoy history.

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NotesI
1. in 5. RobertRosenstone, 'Historyin Images/History on Words: Reflections the possibility really of putting Review 93 historyonto film',AmericanHistorical (1988), 1178. J. 'JeanneauCin6ma', See, forexample,Kevin Harty, 6. in BonnieWheelerand CharlesWood (eds.) Fresh on Verdicts Joan of Arc(NewYork, 1996), 237-264, and NadiaMargolis, 'Trial Passion:Philology, film by and ideology in the portrayalof Joan of Arc, 7. of and Moder 1900-1930', Journal Medieval Early Studies27 (1997),445-493. 8. As DavidHerlilhy pointsout, we knowthat Charle9. Roman on magnewas crowned Holy Emperor Christthe mas, 800, butthe chroniclesdo nottellus 'what of interior old St. Peter's- a churchnotnowstanding - lookedlikeon thatevening,whatthecourtiers were wearing,whatmusicwas heard'.See 'AmI a Camera?Other on reflections filmsandhistory', American 10. Historical Review93 (1988), 1189. visualorverHaydenWhitecomments,'No history, all bal,"mirrors" oreventhe greater oftheevents part orscenes of whichitpurports be an account,and to this is true even of the most narrowly restricted 11. is "micro-history". written Every history a productof processes of condensation,displacement, symbolisationand qualification exactlylikethose used in the production a filmedrepresentation', of 'HistoriAmericanHistorical ography aand Historiophoty', Review93 (1988), 1194. 'Theahistoricism medievalfilm', of Arthur Lindley, Screeningthe Past 3 (1998), publishedon the Web at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firhtm. strelease/fi r598/Alfr3a. NormanCantor,Inventing MiddleAges: The the of and Medievalists Lives,Works, Ideas of the Great the Twentieth Century (NewYork, 1991), 43. 1187. Herlihy, Onthis point,see White,1195. notes that historical films 'can convey very Herlihy a effectively sense of style, tastes and customs ... can Filmsundoubtedly aid historians make the to alive,tactileeven, to the present'.Herpast visually lihy,1191. PeterBrown,'Learning Imagination', and Inaugural Lecture, RoyalHolloway College, 1977; repr.InSocietyand the Holyin LateAntiquity 1982), (Berkeley, 4. Jean-Claude Schmitt, Le saint levrier:Guinefort, gu6risseurd'enfantsdepuis le Xllle siecle (Paris 1979); translatedinto Englishas The Holy Greyhound:Guinefort, healer of childrensince the thirteenth century (trans. Martin Thom) (Cambridge Studies in Oraland Literate Culture Cambridge, 6, 1983).

2.

3.

4.