Edward Berger’s adaptation of Robert Harris’ Holy See mystery/thriller Conclave is a mature film functioning as a character study of its accidental investigator and the character of the contemporary Catholic church. With an excellent cast and extraordinary cinematography and production design by Stéphane Fontaine and Suzie Davis; Peter Straughan’s potentially dry script leaps off the screen with a magnificent blending of dialogue, performance, and vividly composed visuals.
Set over approximately seventy-two hours after the death of the pope, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) the Dean of the College of Cardinals is tasked with overseeing the conclave – the election of a new pope. The task is immense. Although Dean Lawrence is experiencing a crisis of faith he believes in his friend, Secretary of State Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) whose liberal attitude appeals to Lawrence’s sense of fairness and equality.
Dean Lawrence had real affection for the pope and the task of ensuring Canon law is followed during the interregnum weighs heavily on him, personally and existentially. Cardinals and Archbishops descend on Rome with their entourages. Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) expects the papacy to follow on from his position as Camerlengo. Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), originally from Nigeria, has some support to be the first Black pope despite his archaic views on homosexuality. Ostentatious and insinuating Italian Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) is making an open grab to be the pontiff using xenophobia, and reactionary responses to ‘liberalism’ in the church as a platform – ready to wage a holy war if necessary to ensure the supremacy of conservative Catholicism. Fontaine’s camera surveys them milling around the courtyard of the Domus Sanctae Marthae and the Apostolic Palace as if they are rival groups at high school set apart by their differing ornate crucifixes and huddled conversations.
The other people who descend on the Domus Sanctae Marthae are a busload of nuns managed by Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini) who are there to act as serving staff, to be neither seen nor heard. Despite Sister Agnes’ closeness to the former pope; brides of Christ remain secondary in the patriarchal system. Something Cardinal Bellini would like to change (one of his cohort says, “Don’t bring up women,” as a warning). Yet, there is one nun who is there specifically to be seen.
There is a surprising addition to the College of Cardinals – a man claiming to be the consecrated Cardinal of Kabul. Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) was appointed by the pope in pectore because his ministries are in primarily Islamic territories. The Mexican clergyman is accepted by Dean Lawrence as part of the conclave and proves himself to be a man of God who is uniquely connected to the realities of what people need from the church, unlike many of the men about to be sequestered for the vote in the Sistine Chapel.
Dean Lawrence delivers his homily to the Cardinals in a pre-election Mass and finds himself injecting the philosophical questions he has been long pondering exacerbated by the possibility of illegal politicking and mishandled funds. He has been presented with credible verbal evidence of the former pope dismissing Cardinal Tremblay. “Certainty is the great enemy of unity, and the deadly enemy of tolerance.” Doubt is what opens the heart and mind to faith, Lawrence preaches.
Dean Lawrence wanted to be released of his duties by the pope so he could explore his doubt, and he admitted as much to Bellini. Bellini informs him that the Royal Pontiff had his own doubts – never about God, but about the church itself. Were the former pope’s doubts the reason he refused to release Lawrence from the
The Sistine Chapel with the windows darkened is where the ballots are handwritten and walked by the voting Cardinal to a ceremonial urn. After the first day there is no clear winner, but a few have voted for Lawrence. Bellini is not getting as many votes as expected. He later calls Lawrence a Judas who harboured ambitions for the throne all along. It isn’t enough to shatter their friendship, but it is enough for Lawrence to begin to contemplate whether he would take on the mantle.
Lawrence’s faithful and fidgety secretary Monsignor O’Malley (Brían F. O’Byrne) is tasked with finding out if a drunken cleric’s claim that Tremblay was dismissed is true. Tremblay denies everything telling Lawrence to verify his innocence with a witness Lawrence can’t speak with because they are not allowed contact with the outside world. Conspiracies are certainly afoot in the sacred halls of Vatican City. The clear favourite, Cardinal Adeyemi, is removed because of a scandal in his past – one that would be a PR nightmare more than something the church has historically strictly enforced laicization for.
Lawrence becomes a principled and burdened detective who will only reveal so much, leaving the rest up to the conscience of men who may have forgotten what conscience means. The vast hypocrisy of the Catholic Church is acknowledged by the Cardinals themselves. When one of the Cardinals is caught out by documents kept by the pope (who was always eight steps ahead) proving simony in exchange for votes and increased power, Bellini pragmatically puts forward that it’s not exactly a new practice in by Pontiffs and they’ve recently had a pope who was in the Hitler youth and one who deliberately covered up wide-spread sex crimes and paedophilia. Isn’t it now a case of voting for the lesser evil? The pope is mortal, but the church is forever.
The voting shuffles again after Adeyemi is discredited (but not expelled) with Cardinal Tedesco’s voting bloc growing larger. Every potential scandal and conspiracy benefits the grinning and vaping avatar of intolerance. Sergio Castellitto plays Tedesco as almost a moustache twirling villain with his ‘keep Catholicism for those who can afford to study Latin and out of the hands of non-Europeans’. That is until the depth of his prejudice is revealed. With bombs going off in Rome, Tedesco claims it is now the time to stop practicing tolerance for other religions, time to stop giving humanitarian aid, and time to go to war. Religion and land being the spark for most wars – something Cardinal Benitez knows well having done outreach work in the Congo and living and in Kabul – the small mindedness of men such as Tedesco is anathema to what the Church should be; hope not hatred.
Considering the history of the Catholic Church the transgressions committed in Conclave are barely revelatory nor shocking. However, as much as the richly cloistered Cardinals in the Apostolic Palace are by the large petty and mendacious men squabbling for power, the Royal Pontiff is an immensely influential position. Not only is the Roman Pontiff the representative of God’s law for Catholics; the Church itself is also excessively wealthy from centuries old investments in property, charities, healthcare services, banking, and culture. The British Dean Lawrence and Italian American Cardinal Bellini worry about the Church’s relevance in the developed world and look to small ‘l’ liberalism as the solution against the venality and prejudice of other Cardinals. It’s developing nations and colonised nations where Catholicism is growing. Apart from one, are any of these men qualified to vote on such a critical appointment let alone seek to be the Pontiff himself?
Conclave using Cardinal Lawrence’s point of view as a man forced to reconfirm his commitment to a position he doesn’t desire is where the effect of attrition and compromise are most evident. Edward Berger isn’t attempting to make a pressure-cooker countdown piece exposing secret codes unlocking arcane or modern religious puzzles. Cardinal Lawrence is no naïf; he knows the fallible nature of the men around him and his crisis of faith is partially guilt driven. “I don’t want your votes,” he snaps at Benitez. Benitez remains firm that it doesn’t matter, he will vote with belief and hope that Lawrence will find the strength he needs to serve God.
Ralph Fiennes wears Lawrence’s frustration, disillusionment, and determination using his immense talent for expressing vulnerability with a cerebral flair. Berger frames Fiennes’ eyes openly weeping for the man he knew, whose body is not yet stiff before Tremblay pulls the ring with the papal seal off his finger. Berger again uses Fiennes’ eyes as the switching point of view for the camera as it captures the black, reds, and purples of the pontifical cassocks on men he is supposed to be in a brotherhood with, yet they are distant and anonymous.
Edward Berger is a master of cinematic composition. The grandeur of the Holy See even behind blackout curtains and metal shutters and the dramatic theatricality of Catholic ritual are framed with attention to symbolic and psychological detail. Volker Bertelmann’s score confirms the tonality of uncertainty and the sublime. Conclave is technically flawless.
Conclave lacks surface thumbscrew tension as the primary mystery is entertaining in its power grabs but not hugely complex to work out. However, the mystery itself is a cover for larger questions about the validity of eminence and divinity and God’s grace being decided upon by men for whom corruption is standard practice. The ending will cause a level of consternation among some viewers, but what argument against it can be mounted without proving part of what the film was critiquing to be undeniable?
Conclave showcases Ralph Fiennes’ decades long mastery of his craft and Edward Berger’s aesthetic aplomb and confirming faith in the divinity of the moving image.
Director: Edward Berger
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow
Writers: Peter Straughan, (based on the book by Robert Harris)
Producers: Alice Dawson, Robert Harris, Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross
Music: Volker Bertelmann
Cinematography: Stéphane Fontaine
Editing: Nick Emerson
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