Conclave
Fresh layers of the Vatican are unpeeled in Edward Berger’s complex, riveting and pertinent mystery-drama.
The layers within… Ralph Fiennes
Image courtesy of Black Bear Pictures.
A conclave is the official meeting of the College of Cardinals to elect a new pope. If that sounds as dry as toast, Edward Berger’s adaptation of the 2016 bestseller by Robert Harris would beg to differ. Conclave is not a sensational thing in the manner of The Omen or The Da Vinci Code, but is a rigorous, provocative and surprisingly relevant examination of organised religion, much as The Godfather was about organised crime. Such is the powerplay and ritual behind the Vatican’s modus operandi that it can mask the most Machiavellian of agendas brewed behind the physical majesty of the Roman Catholic palace.
Should one be willing to overlook the preponderance of American accents in the Vatican’s hallowed halls – this is the work of a German director, after all – then there is much to admire and to engage in the pomp of this papal soap opera. Ralph Fiennes is Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, the moral centre and “the manager of the farm”, the task allotted him by the late pontiff who has passed away peacefully from a heart attack. It is the job of Lawrence to oversee the smooth election process of the next head of the Catholic Church – with as much dignity, efficiency and even-handedness that his post allows. At first, with so many cardinals arriving from all over the Catholic world, from as far afield as South-East Asia and South America, the electoral process looks as if it could be a confusing and arduous prospect, particularly in the wake of all the fun and games we’ve had in the recent American circus. But as the favourites for the position become apparent and are whittled down to a hopeful few, the skeletons begin to rattle in their closets. “Seems we’re running out of favourites,” mutters Stanley Tucci’s Aldo Cardinal Bellini with a note of wry irony. Bellini himself, an American liberal, is ready to reform the church, albeit disinclined to embrace the high-ranking post himself (or is such reluctance merely a ploy?).
Had Edward Berger (who directed the Oscar-winning All Quiet On the Western Front) not given the film such a commanding visual stamp – awash with comic detail as well as stentorian symbolism – this could have resulted in a more theatrical performance. But as our noble referee, Ralph Fiennes keeps the guessing game fluid, his mix of candour and goodness retaining an even keel. He admits that, “There is one sin which I have come to fear above all others… certainty. If there was only certainty, and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore, no need for faith.” The script, by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Goldfinch) is full of juicy insights and proclamations, which the excellent cast nails on just this side of comic absurdity. “Well, I’d say this is a pretty fair vision of hell,” notes Monsignor Raymond O’Malley (Brían F. O’Byrne). To which Lawrence quips, “Don’t be blasphemous. Hell arrives tomorrow – when we bring in the cardinals.”
To pull off the balance between high melodrama and the talkiness of a radio play is no mean feat, but Berger has assembled just the right amount of cinematic mastery to push the message of the medium through to its natural, deliciously surprising, conclusion. The attention to the detail of such arcane ritual is in itself fascinating, all the more so as it exists nowhere else and is so ancient. And when Lawrence is forced to consider “the least worst option,” the resonance is not lost on a modern audience. Yet behind all the pomp, ceremony and scandal, a humanity still remains, a humanity that, after all, still links 1.4 billion people around the world.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Sergio Castellitto, Lucian Msamati, Brían F. O’Byrne, Carlos Diehz, Merab Ninidze, Thomas Loibl, Jacek Koman.
Dir Edward Berger, Pro Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Michael Jackman, Alice Dawson and Robert Harris, Screenplay Peter Straughan, from the novel by Robert Harris, Ph Stéphane Fontaine, Pro Des Suzie Davies, Ed Nick Emerson, Music Volker Bertelmann, Costumes Lisy Christl, Sound Ben Baird.
FilmNation Entertainment/House Productions/Indian Paintbrush-Black Bear Pictures.
119 mins. UK/USA. 2024. US Rel: 25 October 2024. UK Rel: 29 November 2024. Cert. 12A.
