By now, a lot of us have seen, heard, or read about Conclave, the film that gives us a rare inside look into how a pope is elected. It has garnered much media and public attention. Because of rave reviews and the thought-provoking subject, the film was a box office hit. It received its fair share of Academy Award nominations and more trophies from other award-giving bodies.
Now that the papal conclave has elected a pope, interest in the film has increased. The real conclave has apparently given the film an avalanche of free publicity that could well be manna from heaven for the producers. It’s similar to the media hype showered on The Crown after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan, Conclave is a riveting suspense thriller—a whodunit without a murder, the “who” referring to the next pope. The cardinals favored to be pope are like the usual suspects of centuries past.
Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose duty it is to preside over the election. Lawrence unearths the skeletons in the closets of some papal candidates. He wants to eliminate the unworthy from the race, but runs into stumbling blocks.
You probably know that a Filipino cardinal figures in the plot. The film portrays him as Mexican instead
I wasn’t keen on seeing Conclave. It’s been said that it isn’t very faithful to the original novel by Robert Harris. I haven’t read it; you probably know that a Filipino cardinal figures in the plot and does much to steer it. The film portrays him as Mexican instead. To be fair, the nationalities of the other cardinals were also changed for the film.
I love how director Berger tells the story. Conclave is heavy with atmosphere, and has that mystery thriller quality to it. As setting of the voting and confrontations, he gives stunning shots of the Vatican, an authentic-looking facsimile of it. Think of the early shots of the convent in The Sound of Music. In Conclave, you also see breathtaking images of nuns in prayer plus a huddle of cardinals happily chatting away during yosi break. This movie is a visual feast. It’s almost like a film essay with a compelling plot as bonus.
Berger chose a topnotch cast of brilliant actors, like Fiennes and Stanley Tucci as the American-Italian cardinal. There’s the always reliable John Lithgow as the conniving Canadian cardinal who expertly shrouds his nefarious ways with excellent decorum. The lone rose among the thorns, Isabella Rossellini carries an air of mystery as the strong-willed nun who holds damning information about a candidate; it was good to see her onscreen again. The role as written—so brief—doesn’t warrant an Academy award nomination for the actress, but she was nominated anyway.
Today, most films that become major contenders for the Academy Award tend to be less of an entertainment and more of an obligation to watch. This was among the reasons I missed Conclave on its cinema run. But director Berger has done a splendid job in keeping us enthralled. Conclave is only his fifth directing credit, though he’s won the Oscars’ International Award for writing and directing All Quiet On the Western Front.
The premise itself is intriguing and gripping, akin to movies about sequestered jurors in a court trial. This brings to mind the films 12 Angry Men and Runaway Jury written by the prolific John Grisham. .
12 Angry Men, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, was produced in 1957, an indictment of the communist witch-hunt and racism. The jury is almost unanimous in voting for conviction. One of the jurors, however, raises the benefit of the doubt. The debates slowly reveal that racism has a lot to do with the guilty verdict. It’s up to that one juror, played by Henry Fonda, to convince them to acquit.
In Runaway Jury, Gene Hackman is a corrupt lawyer who manipulates the jurors using blackmail. Unbeknownst to him, a law school dropout played by John Cusack is into the same game by claiming he holds powerful influence on the jury. He’s selling the verdict for $15 million. Released in 2003, Runaway Jury is streaming on Netflix.
Perhaps somebody should do a movie on how the film-award-giving bodies select their winners. Doing one on the Oscars a la Conclave, however, is impossible since the Academy has 5,000 members voting for the winners. The focus, however, should be on the smaller organizations as well as film festivals and critics awards. Balloting time with the high-brow members of the New York Critics Circle is said to be bloody, what with prolific film critics championing their favorite movies. It should make for great satire. But whether or not a film about them would be well-received critically remains to be seen.
In the slapstick comedy, What’s Up, Doc?, the character of a protagonist was based on New York magazine’s nasty film critic John Simon. In the movie, the obnoxious character was named Hugh Simon, played by comedian Kenneth Mars. He was so hilarious he almost stole the show from Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, and Madeline Kahn. John Simon didn’t sue, but his reviews on the later films of Streisand and director Peter Bogdonavich became a personal vendetta.
But I digress.
