There are many metaphors in the structure of Conclave (2024) that ranking them by priority would produce different orders for most viewers.
Conclave is the filmed version of Robert Harris’s 2016 novel about the death of a pope and the ensuing election to appoint his successor.
The film is a nod to the death of John Paul I in 1978. John Paul I was pontiff for 33 days before dying of a heart attack.
All popes die. No matter how venal or how revered.
John Paul I was expected to make sweeping changes to Catholic ideology in his forthcoming papacy and his death was considered suspect because of this and his short tenure.
Conspiracy theories have been manifold ever since but a link at the conclusion of this review will give more insight into possible malfeasance or simply death by common cause.
It does though provide a starting point for Harris’s book, so beautifully brought to screen by director Edward Berger and cinematographer Stephane Fontaine.
The pope has died and the lot falls to Dean Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) to organise cardinals from throughout the world to gather in the Vatican City to elect a successor.
“I thought I would never have to do this. I thought he would outlive all of us,” says Lawrence but producing the ritualistic ceremonial election is right up his street. The dying pope has told another cardinal that Lawrence is a manager, not a leader, so he is not seriously considered a candidate.
Lawrence is already questioning his role. He questions his ability to pray just as he remembers the pope questioning not his faith but the church itself.
What unfolds leads to one of the metaphors: the papal election is like a modern presidential-style contest. Candidates look great on paper but revelations of their pasts lead to their withdrawal.
Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) is weak, Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) is corrupt, Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) has betrayed his celibate oath, Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Casttellito) is a firebrand who wants the church brought back to that of previous centuries.
Bellini is considered a front runner. He says he doesn’t want the papacy but then briefly turns on his great friend Lawrence when the dean receives a handful of votes in the first ballot.
Tremblay has bought votes from cardinals with promises of largesse once he is elected.
Adeyemi has been outed by Tremblay, who arranges for a nun, the mother of Adeyemi’s child, to be brought from Africa to serve food during the sequestering of the cardinals during the election.
Tedesco oozes confidence and bluster but after a terrorist bomb destroys part of the Sistine Chapel where the cardinals are gathered, his anti-Islamic rant proves his undoing.
While Lawrence is organising the election, a previously unknown Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), arrives from Kabul. He has been named a cardinal by the dying pope but the information not shared because of the dangerous city in which he preached.
Benitez brings a simplicity of a former world where the church supposedly cared about the hungry and the thirsty. If only politics was like this? The venal and the weak are cast aside for the man in the humble clothes who speaks a common sense which embraces humankind.
That last word is carefully chosen for another metaphor of Conclave is the subordination of women in the church’s history and still during this conclave.
Adeyemi’s former lover is still a sister but used as a pawn to unsettle him 30 years after the fact; the entire cooking and cleaning fleet serving the cardinals in their sequester are sisters. They are essential but also essentially unseen. Their ‘manager’ Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini) is strong and determined.
She is meticulous in her role; kind and caring to her fellow nuns and subservient enough to know her place. In a sign of changing times, she loudly interrupts the cardinals while Tremblay attempts to explain his duplicity. It is an act of courage.
* Women matter. Women lead. Women are key. It is shown that Benitez’s previous missions have been in countries where women are serially abused and he has fought for their welfare.
I am unsure if it’s a metaphor but Lawrence’s managing of the election appears to be guided by the dying pope. Like George Smiley in John Le Carre’s books, the pope is well ahead of the game and his actions change the course of the election. Is it a metaphor that he wants to still direct things even after death?
Before this, the pope has ensured Lawrence ‘manages’ the conclave (the right man to handle the intricacies which follow); sacks Tremblay before he becomes a candidate (but his death happens before this is public); knows Adeyemi will fall because he knows what Tremblay has done; knows all the competing cardinals will do anything to stop Tedesco; and secretly appoints Benitez who he possibly sees as the future.
That’s a lot of plot but there is much more. The screenplay is marvellous; the filming beautiful (it was shot at Cinecitta outside Rome and visual references to the Sistine Chapel are interspersed) and follows faithfully to Harris’s novel.
I saw The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) when it came out. It too covered a papal election with the added storyline of World War III threatening. In that film, each cardinal sat in front of an awning and when casting their ballot, released the tapestry to fall flat against the wall behind them.
In Conclave, each man puts pen to card and deposits his vote in an urn.
The scrutineers count the votes. Once counted, each card is pierced with a pin and a thread is passed through the holes to form a sort of daisy chain necklace. If the vote is inconclusive, the threaded votes are burnt and a chemical reaction releases black smoke to an awaiting public.
When a pope is elected, a different button is pushed and white smoke emanates from the chimney above St Peter’s.
When Conclave’s viewers see that white smoke they will have experienced a two-hour cinematic ride which blows away car chase/shooting-killing/heist movies. See it.
4
Death of John Paul I
* “Pope Francis has appointed Sister Simona Brambilla to head a curial committee. Her title is Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.” (Paul Sullivan) He says this is hugely important from a catholic viewpoint.
I WRIGHT 