Stealing Heaven
Stars
4
Rating
R
Author
Chris Bryant; Marion Meade (novel)
Length
108 min
Director
Clive Donner
Synopsis
"Abelard is a famous teacher of philosophy at the cathedral school of Notre Dame, and a champion of reason, at a time when academics are required to observe chastity. He falls in love with one of his students, Héloïse d'Argenteuil, a sixteen-year old gentlewoman raised in a convent, who has both intellectual curiosity and a rebellious view of the low status of women in 12th century Europe. When the relationship is suspected, Heloise's uncle Fulbert, who had other plans for her marriage, works with the bishop of Paris to put a stop to it. Nevertheless, Abelard and Heloise have a child together and later are secretly married. Abelard faces a struggle with himself for acting against the will of God and yet loves Heloise too much to be able to stop himself. Heloise's uncle takes a terrible revenge on Abelard for ruining Heloise's chance of a rich husband." [Wikipedia] "In his Historia Calamitatum, an autobiographical piece written around 1132, Abélard tells the story of his seduction of Héloïse, whom he met when in 1115 he himself, like Fulbert, became a canon in Paris.
It is unclear how old Héloïse was at this time. She is described as an adolescentula (young girl), and so it is often assumed that she was about seventeen at the time and therefore born in 1100–01. More recently, however, Constant Mews has suggested that the age of seventeen is a seventeenth-century fabrication with no supporting contemporary evidence, and that she was probably in her early twenties when she met Abelard. The main support for this is that in a later letter, Peter the Venerable writes to Héloïse that he remembers her when he was a young man and she was a woman. Given that Peter the Venerable was born in 1092, it suggests that Héloïse would have been in her early twenties. Mews proposes that this makes more sense of Abelard's later comment that he sought to seduce Héloïse because she was the most famous woman in France for her studies, because it is unlikely that she would have acquired this reputation or her command of Greek and Hebrew by the age of seventeen. Additional support for this can also be found in one of Héloïse's own letters, in which she says that she was 22 when she and Abelard were parted." [Wikipedia]
It is unclear how old Héloïse was at this time. She is described as an adolescentula (young girl), and so it is often assumed that she was about seventeen at the time and therefore born in 1100–01. More recently, however, Constant Mews has suggested that the age of seventeen is a seventeenth-century fabrication with no supporting contemporary evidence, and that she was probably in her early twenties when she met Abelard. The main support for this is that in a later letter, Peter the Venerable writes to Héloïse that he remembers her when he was a young man and she was a woman. Given that Peter the Venerable was born in 1092, it suggests that Héloïse would have been in her early twenties. Mews proposes that this makes more sense of Abelard's later comment that he sought to seduce Héloïse because she was the most famous woman in France for her studies, because it is unlikely that she would have acquired this reputation or her command of Greek and Hebrew by the age of seventeen. Additional support for this can also be found in one of Héloïse's own letters, in which she says that she was 22 when she and Abelard were parted." [Wikipedia]
Genre
Historical
Released
1988
Location
Europe
Period
Abelard (1079-1142)
Netflix
No
This movie is linked to the following periods
PeriodMinor
Begin
End
Category
Capetian Kings
987
1328
French