I know you’ve probably heard that this is a great movie worth watching. After all, it’s still highly popular, several months after its initial release. I am here to tell you that the hype is real and that Conclave is really that good, a true masterpiece. It’s that type of cinematic experience you should savor. The movie practically invented a whole new genre: a religious procedural. It opens a huge window into one of the most secretive places on our planet, the Vatican. All of this is coming from a cynical atheist who couldn’t care less about what some men in dresses are talking about. However, I cannot deny the fact that religion is still a huge part of our society.
So, movies about religion, especially movies about religion that dare to push the envelope like this one need to be talked about. Even if we disregard the whole religious aspect, this is still a beautiful movie. Conclave features truly stunning and almost hypnotic cinematography. The composition, color, focus, lighting, everything was so superb that almost every scene is iconic. If I could, I would plaster this review with at least thirty screengrabs. And I’m currently struggling to pick the best ones so I’ll just upload the ones that I consider noteworthy. Before we go any further, I guess I should tell you a little bit about the plot.
Based on a novel of the same name by Robert Harris, Conclave is a movie about the election process for the new pope. The body that governs this process is the eponymous conclave led by Cardinal Thomas Lawrence. Over the course of just a couple of days and basically, in a single location, they will try to resolve this issue. That is the literal meaning of the word conclave: come (together) and clavis (key). They will try to resolve the issue of the most important man in the whole Catholic Church. As you can already guess there’s not much action here. However, every fucking moment of this movie is full of tension and all-consuming atmosphere. An atmosphere that’s going to envelop you and everyone in the room in a matter of minutes.
Additionally, the running time is just under two hours. Compare that to three and half hour monstrosity that is The Brutalist or The Killers of the Flower Moon. The director is Edward Berger, the man behind another masterpiece, All Quiet At The Western Front. Not to mention one of my favorite mini-series The Terror. You can also read the original Dan Simmon’s novel of the same name. Now, let’s get back to the election, stop the count! The process is at the same time bizarre and quite familiar. Again, I’m saying this from the atheistic standpoint although, of course, I don’t represent atheism as a general. That’s something no one could do but at the same time also does.
And the reason why I had to say this is because I’ve noticed that people found it incredibly revealing to find out all of these things. I’m not just talking about the way organized religion is run but also about the people that run it. I think most of us, atheists, already kind of assumed stuff like this is happening. And I haven’t even gotten to the part everybody is raving about. So, we have not only the substance of the movie but also the reaction to it to consider. Absolutely none of this has anything to do with the overall quality of the movie, which is fucking superb. The script and the performances were sublime and Ralph Fiennes did indeed deserve an Academy Award for his role of Cardinal Lawrence.
Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow were just as good. There are so many things to notice and analyze here that the cast simply had to be up to the task. They went above and beyond is all I’m going to say about that. Conclave is also a character study. You can take any scene from this movie a write an essay about it. For example, let’s examine the one where the pope’s dead body is being transported in the ambulance with Cardinal Lawrence sitting right next to him. This transition from another, seemingly ethereal world, to the world of us, common folk, mortals, is sublime.
The way that Berger symbolizes this with the preceding scenes featuring the grubby and almost disrespectful removal of his papal ring is also sublime. Throughout all of this, Cardinal Lawrence is struggling with grief, not aware of the challenges that will soon face him. He’s still mourning, stricken by the death of his friend and the most important man in the Catholic world. The closest thing to god on Earth. As the pope’s body is macabrely and yet so expectantly swaying in the ambulance, we see the title Conclave emerge from the darkness. Pure fucking cinematic ecstasy.
And we’re only getting started. This is why I said you need to savor this experience. Well, I could go on and on but I don’t want to bother you too much with this one. I’ll be surprised if you made it this far. I’m far more interested in what you thought of the movie. And whether should I include my thoughts on the big reveal which happens during the finale along with the reaction of the viewers. Let me know in the comments section.
Director: Edward Berger
Writers: Peter Straughan, Robert Harris
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz, Isabella Rossellini,
Fun Facts: Conclave provides a lot of hints that the pope that dies in the movie is actually the current pope Francis. One of them is a drawer full of rubber bands which pope Francis usually returns to his newsagent in Buenos Aires each month.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20215234/
