Member-only story
Conclave
694.
I really didn’t like the Robert Harris book of 2016. All my memory turned up was a lot of whispering and a male Catholic world where the only women are subservient nuns. I think women priests may have figured?
You might ask why is such an important (though powerless) person like the next Pope, chosen by such elaborate voting ceremonial by such a sad collection of whispering schemers?
The film takes the ceremonial and triumphantly turns it into a matter of life and death — including a bomb attack. The cardinals, as tradition dictates, are sequestered, cut off from the world — no phones, laptops, no tablets, not even books. In vast elegantly elderly buildings the crimson- and-white-clad old men follow their paths like ants, observed from above by the camera and the Eye of God.
Who clearly has a sense of humour because of the splendidly outrageous — and apposite — twist after the new Pope has been duly elected. There have been grubby and disgraceful dealings before this point but the end is satisfying.
You feel that the absent God the cardinals follow so assiduously might be smiling at all the striving and anxiety, His hands open and welcoming to each anxious striver in crimson silk.
Yes, 5 stars and a possible Oscar for Ralph Fiennes whose portrayal of the Dean in charge of the Conclave is pitch perfect.
~~~
