Sergio Castellitto stars as Cardinal Tedesco ‘Conclave’ Credit – Focus Features
There’s something hilarious, and wonderful, about seeing actors you know striding importantly around a soundstage version of the Vatican while dressed in official cardinal garb. That’s the magic of Edward Berger’s papal drama Conclave, or at least part of it. Stanley Tucci wearing his red Zucchetto tilted jauntily toward the back of his head, ‘30s newsboy-style? Sign me up! Ralph Fiennes indicating that the metaphorical burden on his shoulders is much, much greater than the actual weight of his scarlet capelet? I’m all over it! Conclave, the story of a huddle of cardinals scheming and counter-scheming as they , is great fun. It is also fiction. (The screenplay was adapted, from , by Peter Straughan.) But even as it captures the allure of Vatican style—the swingy gold ecclesiastical necklaces, those soft red leather slippers—it makes a more overarching serious point: the must change, or risk becoming as desiccated as the bones of a long-dead saint.
Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, a papal dignitary who, upon the death of the big boss, the Holy Father, is responsible for gathering all the word’s cardinals at the Vatican to elect a replacement. This responsibility makes him miserable: not long ago, he’d tried to slip out of his vaunted position, citing a crisis of faith—about the Church, not God. But the boss said no. Now there’s no stopping the stream of cardinals from all over the world. (Conclave was filmed largely at Cinecittà Studios, and its facsimiles of the Vatican’s painted treasures and delicately veined marble interiors appear to be dutifully accurate.) Awaiting the arrival of these vaunted men is an army of nuns, who greet them by popping their tablets into plastic bags—there must be no contact with the outside world as they fulfill the somber task of pope replacement. These nuns will also act as silent servants, ferrying the men’s food from kitchen to table with cheerful acquiescence. The chief nun is Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini, convincingly no-nonsense), who oversees all this women’s work, ensuring it’s up to the unmeetable standards of these very important guys, as well as the Lord Father above.
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