| The genius of Conclave kind of sneaks up on you. The (fictional) story of electing a pope becomes a riveting and at times suspenseful power struggle between men. A line near the beginning said by Stanley Tucci’s Cardinal Bellini, a line also said in politics (but not often enough), goes, “the person who wants the position the most, is exactly the type of person who should not get it.” Those who seek power are those who should not have power. | | 2024
Directed by: Edward Berger
Screenplay by: Peter Straughan, Robert Harris
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini
|
Even when those men who seek power wear their choir dress with a scarlet red cassock, they are still not immune to abusing their power. The scarlet red that they wear is meant to symbolize a cardinal’s willingness to die for his faith. This is interesting when this particular conclave shows us a number of cardinals who go to great lengths to cover up everything they have done which their church tells them they are not allowed to do. I’m not sure that’s the same thing as willing to die for their faith. But the Church goes on and so begins a multi-day hunt for the next pope including a lot of cardinals who should not be pope.
The framing in this movie is a lot of fun. When all of the voting-eligible, and eligible-to-be-pope cardinals arrive, the camera is up above, watching a stream of red and white robed men arrive, entering the marbled halls of the Vatican, dragging their modern-day wheeled suitcases over the intricately tiled stone floors and flicking their cigarette butts to the side. There are also shots of old cardinals scrolling on their iPad and a nun sitting at her computer checking email. Activities not commonly associated with the process of electing a pope, an historical and ancient tradition that has been around for two millennia.
I have seen a lot of critics and awards voters complain about the lack of original score contenders worthy of consideration. This is surprising considering Conclave is right here. Every note bellowing from the Cristal Baschet (a contemporary and unusual musical instrument related to the organ), is right in time with each new development in this tightly written thriller of electing a pope. It’s a movie that is very contemporary and decidedly not pro-Catholic Church but still respectful of its history, traditions and faith. A modern and contemporary score which borrows from the classical church organ fits perfectly.
With the sheer number of cardinals involved (103 per this fictional papal conclave) and all of their names thrown around at the beginning, it is surprisingly easy to keep them all straight – who wants to be pope, who doesn’t want to be pope, who wants to pretend they don’t want to be pope but really does want to be pope, who is going to take the Church backwards, who is going to create a firestorm of bad media if they’re elected pope, and finally who did the recently departed Pope not want to become pope. That last one could be all of them.
Conclave is a fascinating portrayal of conflicting personalities, intertwined with deviating concepts of faith, sin and forgiveness. And it’s all wrapped up in a voting process that looks eerily similar to a political leadership convention. There is supposed to be a separation of church and state and yet political parties (in most countries) have shaped their leadership convention directly from the one place they probably shouldn’t have – the Catholic Church. It’s unsurprising that both seem to attract the same type of men – those who want power but should not have it.
|
