Film Review by CARROLL McCUNE
“This is a pretty fair vision of hell!” complained Monsignor Raymond O’Malley (Brian F. O’Byrne) while surveying the noisy, chaotic, unholy preparations for the Conclave to be held in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. “Don’t be blasphemous, Ray.” replied Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes). “Hell arrives tomorrow, when we bring in the cardinals.” The quip referred to the the politicking, collusion, and naked ambition of the contenders for the papacy after the unexpected death of the Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church.
The setting of “Conclave” takes place in the shuttered, locked-down rooms of the guest house of the College of Cardinals, a pedestrian building adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica and in an amazing, constructed set of the interior of the Sistine Chapel (Cinecittà Studios). Scenes are bathed in the red glow of candles and the yellow luminescence of shaded incandescent light. German director Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) created a prison-like atmosphere for the sequestered cardinal-electors in order to heighten the viewers’ sense of claustrophobia and entrapment.
Replica of the Sistine Chapel created at Cinecittà Studios, Rome, Italy. The chapel and the guest house of the College of Cardinals were constructed by a team of fifty skilled artisans. It took ten weeks just to recreate Michelangelo’s fresco “The Last Judgement” that looms prophetically over the Conclave.
Scenes are staged almost entirely in a palette of red, black, and white. Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, costume designer Lisy Christl and art director Roberta Federico evoked the color symbolism of Renaissance painting for this masterpiece of modern cinematic art: red for passion, black for power, and white for spiritual purity.
Berger’s dramatization of the secret, medieval procedure for papal elections pulls the curtain aside from the oldest, institutional religious ritual in Western civilization. The Conclave (from the Latin, con clavis: “with a key”) began in the 11th century by Pope Nicholas II who decreed that the selection of popes was to be carried out by the entire body of cardinals rather than appointed by ruling emperors and monarchs. Cardinals were to be locked-up for days during which rounds of voting took place until one candidate won a two-thirds majority. They wrote their choices on paper ballots, which were burned afterwards, sending up either white or black smoke indicating to the faithful whether or not a decision had been made.
In the film, Cardinal Lawrence, Dean of the College of Cardinals, is thrust haplessly into the role of overseer of the nomination process while grappling with a personal crisis of faith. Before the Pope’s death, Lawrence’s nagging doubts had prompted him to resign from his Vatican post, but the Pope wouldn’t accept his resignation. Now, he must deal with disturbing disclosures about the four main candidates for the papacy. Albeit most of the 108 cardinals demur being chosen. Cardinal Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) speculates that no sane member wants the papacy. Cardinal Sabbadin (Merab Ninidz) warns Lawrence, “The men who are dangerous are the ones who want it.”
Needless to say, Catholics are disturbed by scriptwriter Peter Straughan’s characterization of the cardinals as more concerned with their careers and public opinion than the will of God. Michael Coy of the Catholic Film Club accused the filmmakers of failing to understand the most foundational tenets of their faith and called the film a “purposeful affront to the Catholic Church.” Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of the Word on Fire Catholic media ministry, said that the film unfairly portrays the church hierarchy as a “hotbed of ambition, corruption and desperate egotism.”
Throughout history, seven popes have been murdered and six more are suspected of having been murdered, some by their successor. Straughan’s rivalrous characterization of the contest for the papal throne may be unfair but is not implausible. Director Berger strove for realism in depicting the long-hidden process of papal selection without regard for Catholicism’s reputation in the world.
As a filmmaker, journalistic fairness is of no concern to Berger, whose objective is to create award-winning, blockbuster movies and “Conclave” is currently in the running for this distinction. The director based his film on a novel of the same name by British author Robert Harris published in 2016. Harris’ novel depicts the Conclave as a splintered unstable crowd, capable of suddenly heading off in any direction. The author said, “You can get at a truth as a novelist in a way that you can’t as an historian.” The late Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who had participated in two Conclaves, advised Harris on the rituals detailed in the novel.
Scriptwriter Straughan divulged, “I was brought up a Catholic, so I’m no longer a believer, but I was interested in exploring that world…There’s a moment where Lawrence is giving his homily. I remember reading it in the book, reaching it in the book where he says, ‘God, give us a pope who will doubt.’ And I really liked that, and I found that quite electrifying because this was a few years ago, but things were already becoming horrifically polarized in the world. And even more so now, the idea that the quietly revolutionary stance is to embrace doubt rather than certainty. That felt like a character I wanted to get behind.”
In an interview with Radio Times, British actor Ralph Fiennes said, “I think the spirit of Robert Harris’s book is it’s not a cynical takedown of the Catholic Church. It’s actually asking quite important questions about who is worthy of this position.”
Action in the movie consists of cardinals quarreling in dim corridors, climbing stairs in a procession, riding on buses, thinking, crying, praying, and depositing ballots ceremoniously into an ornate urn. Dialogue dominates the screenplay. Intense, close-up conversations occur between Lawrence and the dutiful Monsignor O’Malley, the calculating, liberal Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), the Machiavellian Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), the cynical, reactionary Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), the homophobic, Nigerian Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), and the meek, mysterious Archbishop of Kabul Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz).
Director Berger’s ability to generate gripping drama from so little action is extraordinary. There are five motionless voting scenes that are even without any dialogue, just ballot counting, silent stares, nervous gestures, and dramatic music. Berger credits Oscar-winning German composer Volker Bertlemann with keeping the story moving. IndieWire’s Chris O’Falt explained, “Bertelmann’s score propels the story forward, often giving scenes a sense of movement and velocity by tapping into the swirling emotions underneath static scenes of well-mannered cardinals in the formal historical setting.”
As the papal candidates maneuver for votes, Lawrence, of necessity, becomes a sleuth probing into the cardinals’ hidden pasts as he struggles to ensure that only the most innocent man among the rival factions—progressives and traditionalists—becomes the next Roman pontiff. He violates the rules of the Apostolic Constitution in order to learn that Tremblay had been dismissed for misconduct by the late Pope on the last day of his life, an event Tremblay denies. He enlists the help of Sister Agnes to discover that Adeyemi, who unabashedly hopes to become the first black pope, fathered a child in Nigeria. Monsignor O’Malley, who is not bound by sequestration, investigates Benitez, who is suspected of being an imposter and had a secret appointment at a specialized clinic. Tedesco plans to declare religious war on Islamic fundamentalists. These revelations unnerve Lawrence, but he is not stumbled; that is, not yet. However, the Conclave’s final disclosure shakes him to the very core of his being.
During the proceedings, terrorists set off bombs that rattle the basilica, signifying divine disapproval of the Conclave. The cardinal-electors smoke nervously in the atrium and dine on sumptuous feasts prepared by the uniformed nun crew of Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), who is contemptuous of the proceedings and serves as the conscience of the Conclave. “Although we sisters are supposed to be invisible, God has nevertheless given us eyes and ears.”
Phillipe Antonello/FOCUS FEATURES
The all-knowing Sister Agnes portrayed by Isabella Rossellini (Phillipe Antonello/FOCUS FEATURES)
The drama actually hinges upon Lawrence’s inner turmoil and growing alienation from the church just as the Conclave is about to pass the chalice to him on the fourth ballot. Faith and doubt serve as leitmotifs in the story. Bellini encourages Lawrence to try for the papacy, in spite of his doubts, by assuring him that the deceased Pope never lost faith in God, just in the church. Lawrence gives a sermon to the assembled cardinals confessing his waning faith and articulating a non-Biblical conception of faith as being dependent upon mystery and doubt. Turning doubt into a virtue, he reasons, “If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore, no need for faith.” He prays for the election of a pope who “doubts…and sins and asks for forgiveness and who carries on.” His homily causes a stir among the cardinals who begin to view him as an earnest contender rather than a facilitator.
Berger said, “I think a lot of people can identify with that feeling, doubt, ‘Should I do something else?’ So [Ralph’s character] is what made me flock to this project.”
British Shakespearian stage and character film actor Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List, Harry Potter franchise) embodies the conflicted Cardinal Thomas Lawrence in “Conclave.” (Courtesy of FOCUS FEATURES)
The two strange scenes at the end of the film are symbolic. Lawrence placing the deceased Pope’s pet turtle back into the pond sends the message that spiritual wisdom comes slowly and in divine timing. And just as the turtle carries with it a protective shell, the church will always act to protect its own interests. The three laughing nuns that depart their dark quarters into the bright Italian sunlight symbolize the ascension of the feminine spirit.
“Conclave” is an intelligent movie for esthetes and cinephiles that forthrightly examines the motivations of pious men. It ends unexpectedly with a bargain Lawrence makes with his conscience and a message of tolerance and reconciliation within the church.
This FilmNation and House production is available on Amazon Prime Video and and Peacock TV.
