Yet despite acutely studying the processes, Harris and now director Berger craft what turns out to be a thrilling allegory for how all modern political power is wielded and fought over in the 21st century. Indeed, Berger makes much of contrasting the modernity of the priests’ technology with the ancient mystique of their rituals. They are still modern men, however, who find themselves devolving into a conflict of liberal and conservative factions, progressive and regressive, vying for power with the battle lines being drawn over how to treat immigrants, women, and other versions of “the other.” It also has a spectacular finale.
The Two Popes
For those looking for something a little closer to reality than Conclave’s eventual sensationalism, or perhaps something to just remind us of the beloved pontiff who has gone to Heaven, we might recommend Fernando Meirelles’ fairly underrated The Two Popes. Despite being nominated for three Oscars, including for Jonathan Pryce as the man who would become Pope Francis and Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI, The Two Popes has long stayed under the radar, probably because it was released on Netflix.
Be that as it may, this is a real movie as well as a bit of speculative fiction about the contentious but ultimately admiring relationship between Pope Francis and the first Chair of St. Peter occupant to retire from the papacy while alive in about 600 years (Pope Gregory XII was the previous pope to last resign way back in 1415!). Contrasted as a strict traditionalist versus a progressive reformer, the film observes how lived experiences can radically shift two men ostensibly chosen by God for the same infallible position. It also makes for a surprisingly wry and disarming bromance. There is likewise quite a bit about the political machinations of the Vatican and how they made Francis’ surprise ascension possible.
We Have a Pope
Released two years before Pope Benedict XVI resigned the papacy, Nanni Moretti’s Italian comedy has a hint of the prescient with its depiction of troubled priests. Set in a universe where, apparently, few or none of the Cardinals in the conclave actually want to be pope, by a fluke of luck one outsider, Cardinal Melville (Michel Piccoli), is elected supreme pontiff. He initially accepts with some hesitation, but upon facing the cheering crowds of St. Peter’s Square, he flinches. The pope will not go outside and greet the masses! In fact, he doesn’t want to be pope!
What follows is an odd and strangely warm comedy about the how heavy lies the crown (or the Holy See) and perhaps a bit of a fanciful prayer about how thoughtful and self-reflective we’d like our leaders to be… even if it comes to the point of this being about a gray-haired pope who needs to be psychoanalyzed into coming out of his basilica.
Angels & Demons
Now we begin getting into the real fun stuff for those who are looking for a little escapism from real-world terrors in their papal pictures. Thus enters the Vatican’s perhaps least favorite tourism booster, Dan Brown. The American novelist who both criticizes the secrecy of the Church and romanticizes its pageantry was the guy that gave the world The Da Vinci Code. Before that controversy (which in retrospect appears quaint), he authored Angels & Demons, an ostensible murder mystery whodunit set in Vatican City during a papal conclave, complete with secret societies, kidnapped cardinals, and of course a murdered pope.
