Conclave (2024) (2024)
October 26, 2024 10:38 PM - Subscribe
After the unexpected death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with managing the covert and ancient ritual of electing a new one. Sequestered in the Vatican with the Catholic Church's most powerful leaders until the process is complete, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could lead to its downfall.
Most of you will be old enough to remember the seventies/eighties-style airport thriller. This is that thriller in film form. It's extremely DRAMATIC and deeply silly. In light of the silliness, you may find the final twist to be in questionable taste. I'm still not sure.
Most of you will be old enough to remember the seventies/eighties-style airport thriller. This is that thriller in film form. It's extremely DRAMATIC and deeply silly. In light of the silliness, you may find the final twist to be in questionable taste. I'm still not sure.
If you're in the mood for it, it could be enjoyable. I'm just not sure they intended it to be as campy as it ended up coming across to me. Fiennes, for instance, seems to be playing things very seriously.
posted by praemunire at 11:24 AM on October 28
posted by praemunire at 11:24 AM on October 28
I really enjoyed this. I love religion-as-courtroom-drama schadenfreude.
The reactions have truly been all over the place. My theater applauded at the end. I have another friend who saw it and said "this somehow healed religious trauma more than my therapist has".... My deeply Catholic mother loved it. On the other hand, I know people who are very offended by it for one reason or another.
Walking out, my first thought was I appreciated the comments/side eyes given in the writing. Many will not say they go far enough, to which I would argue this film contains about a millennia of progress for the Church, only they show it as happening in under a month.
I also appreciated the scene that took down fearmongering as an excuse to hate. I hope the people who really need to hear that message get to watch this film.
Having not read the book ahead of time, I admit I spent about 75% of the film thinking Fiennes's character had somehow murdered the Pope, and we were slowly going to learn it was him over the course of the film. Maybe it's because he plays a guilty Catholic way too well, but I wanted to yell HE DID IT from the first closeup of his eyes.
posted by haplesschild at 1:53 PM on October 28 [6 favorites]
The reactions have truly been all over the place. My theater applauded at the end. I have another friend who saw it and said "this somehow healed religious trauma more than my therapist has".... My deeply Catholic mother loved it. On the other hand, I know people who are very offended by it for one reason or another.
Walking out, my first thought was I appreciated the comments/side eyes given in the writing. Many will not say they go far enough, to which I would argue this film contains about a millennia of progress for the Church, only they show it as happening in under a month.
I also appreciated the scene that took down fearmongering as an excuse to hate. I hope the people who really need to hear that message get to watch this film.
Having not read the book ahead of time, I admit I spent about 75% of the film thinking Fiennes's character had somehow murdered the Pope, and we were slowly going to learn it was him over the course of the film. Maybe it's because he plays a guilty Catholic way too well, but I wanted to yell HE DID IT from the first closeup of his eyes.
posted by haplesschild at 1:53 PM on October 28 [6 favorites]
i love stanley tucci so this is a no brainsr for me
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 3:44 PM on October 28 [3 favorites]
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 3:44 PM on October 28 [3 favorites]
I very much liked the one speech that I think haplesschild is referring to. Otherwise I mostly enjoyed the acting. The amusing little things like Isabella Rossellini's character doing the Law and Order schtick of, I'm going to leave the room now with a page up on my computer, do with it what you will. Also, a certain character's expression near the end while watching some young nuns run laughing out of the building. They were all so good and I look forward to seeing more from that newcomer too.
My partner, on the other hand, was really moved. He was brought up Catholic but his whole family broke with the church over the scandals and the kinds of vatican politics that were on display here. He absolutely loved the denouement.
Was there really as little food on display as I think there was? I was imagining meals for this crowd would be really good. I enjoyed seeing them make the stuff, but not enough of the finished product.
posted by BibiRose at 5:43 AM on November 5
My partner, on the other hand, was really moved. He was brought up Catholic but his whole family broke with the church over the scandals and the kinds of vatican politics that were on display here. He absolutely loved the denouement.
Was there really as little food on display as I think there was? I was imagining meals for this crowd would be really good. I enjoyed seeing them make the stuff, but not enough of the finished product.
posted by BibiRose at 5:43 AM on November 5
On the other hand, I know people who are very offended by it for one reason or another.
Oh, I can think of one reason in particular, I bet....
This is the second "high dramaz while picking a new pope" film I've seen - the first was Angels and Demons, the DaVinci Code sequel where there's faff about the God Particle and a murder subplot and Ewan MacGregor just so happens to be a priest with combat flight training and yadda yadda. This was far more grounded in reality - and was still equally as compelling, if not more so.
The amusing little things like Isabella Rossellini's character doing the Law and Order schtick of, I'm going to leave the room now with a page up on my computer, do with it what you will.
I actually clapped in the theater when she delivered that smackdown in the cafeteria, and then dropped a little curtsey before walking out. ....I was the only one who did, but who cares, she earned it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:56 AM on November 17 [1 favorite]
Oh, I can think of one reason in particular, I bet....
This is the second "high dramaz while picking a new pope" film I've seen - the first was Angels and Demons, the DaVinci Code sequel where there's faff about the God Particle and a murder subplot and Ewan MacGregor just so happens to be a priest with combat flight training and yadda yadda. This was far more grounded in reality - and was still equally as compelling, if not more so.
The amusing little things like Isabella Rossellini's character doing the Law and Order schtick of, I'm going to leave the room now with a page up on my computer, do with it what you will.
I actually clapped in the theater when she delivered that smackdown in the cafeteria, and then dropped a little curtsey before walking out. ....I was the only one who did, but who cares, she earned it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:56 AM on November 17 [1 favorite]
Also, there was a ripple of cynical laughter in the NYC theater last night at Stanley Tucci's line about how they were all now stuck voting for "the lesser of two evils".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:10 AM on November 17 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:10 AM on November 17 [1 favorite]
I just saw this and loved it. I loved the aforementioned speech, getting to see Tucci and Lithgow and Fiennes AND Rossellini all on screen for the same movie, and the bit with the turtle. It seemed like a rather obvious metaphor but I loved it all the same.
I had a long sad bummer of a day and this lifted me up.
posted by bunderful at 5:45 PM on November 17
I had a long sad bummer of a day and this lifted me up.
posted by bunderful at 5:45 PM on November 17
This movie is SO PRETTY. Not just the pretty pretty men in it, but also each shot is composed like an artwork, so deliberate and so artificial that it really fits with the content of the movie itself, the deliberate artsiness and beauty and artificiality of Catholic rituals and settings. I hear the Domus Sanctae Marthae setting was fictionalized, and it doesn't actually look like a cold white-and-black marble retrofuturist dystopia in there? Good to know! But damn it was effective.
I, too, was shouting HE DID IT from the moment Ralph Fiennes came on screen. After Schindler's List and the Harry Potter movies, I just expect evil every time I see him, and here especially he is in Catholic priest robes? Come on. The association is too obvious.
Anyway I loved this movie so much I immediately downloaded a bunch of Robert Harris books on my Libby app and am methodically, delightedly making my way through them. Just finished The Second Sleep, which *really* good, and currently on Munich which is also gripping.
posted by MiraK at 12:01 PM on November 23
I, too, was shouting HE DID IT from the moment Ralph Fiennes came on screen. After Schindler's List and the Harry Potter movies, I just expect evil every time I see him, and here especially he is in Catholic priest robes? Come on. The association is too obvious.
Anyway I loved this movie so much I immediately downloaded a bunch of Robert Harris books on my Libby app and am methodically, delightedly making my way through them. Just finished The Second Sleep, which *really* good, and currently on Munich which is also gripping.
posted by MiraK at 12:01 PM on November 23
This movie is SO PRETTY. Not just the pretty pretty men in it, but also each shot is composed like an artwork, so deliberate and so artificial that it really fits with the content of the movie itself, the deliberate artsiness and beauty and artificiality of Catholic rituals and settings.
I predict a Cinematography Oscar nomination at least, if not an outright win.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:51 AM on November 24 [1 favorite]
I predict a Cinematography Oscar nomination at least, if not an outright win.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:51 AM on November 24 [1 favorite]
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posted by wenestvedt at 11:12 AM on October 28 [1 favorite]