Conclave - Blog Posts
hello conclave nation
Saw the news about pope Francis and my first reaction was ‘This is just like Conclave for real’
"The whole film is a jigsaw puzzle of locations in Rome and studio builds. We built the elements of the Sistine Chapel with the amazing craftsmen at Cinecittà and the rooms and corridors of the Casa Santa Marta. This film is about juxtapositions between what we think we know and what we don’t. We discussed playing with those elements to create a more dramatic visual story. Rome is beautiful with amazing ornate architecture, but it also has contemporary architecture that we decided to play with. The feminine shapes and gold, softer side were juxtaposed against hard black lines, and the whites, blues, and blacks against the gold and rich reds." — Suzie Davies, Production Designer for CONCLAVE (2024).
conclave the book is like so specifically written too like ... its so crazy. bellini's line about "families having 10 children because mama and papa didn't know any better" & "standing for everything tedesco does not" is like only a few pages apart from the reveal of tedesco's backstory being that he's the youngest of 12 kids and grew up destitutely poor from that (& still eats like he's terrified someone might steal his food). like ohh... tedesco is a product of his environment and the paradigm of the traditional values failing people & still trying to force those values on people despite knowing the firsthand experience of the way it sucks. crab in a bucket style.
Thinking about Conclave book Benitez, who didn't have an appendectomy, but got injured by a car bomb and had to be operated on, at which point he found out about his uterus. Who recognises the explosion in Rome as a car bomb and tells Lomeli (Lawrence).
A sudden journey of self-acceptance and reorientating himself within his faith, kickstarted by the same violence that ultimately sees him elected Pope.
It makes the decision to be called Innocent feel that bit more defiant.
The lock slid back and the door half opened. ‘Your Eminence?’ Benítez was clutching his unbuttoned cassock together at his throat. His thin brown feet were bare. The room behind him was in darkness. ‘I’m sorry to interrupt you while you’re dressing. May I have a word?’
Conclave, Chapter 12 The Fifth Ballot
In the book, Benitez specifically points to US imperialism as having caused the death of more Christians than radicalized Muslim youth (and rightly suggests it had a role in that very radicalization!) In the movie, he vaguely identifies the culprit as the 'hate' everyone carries inside themselves. An odd (and very liberal) conclusion. This is one of the few places where the movie departs from the book
Ralph Fiennes's breakdown in the Pope's bedroom in Conclave is one of my favourite parts of the movie. Here's this man, a priest with doubts, who's lost his friend probably something akin to a mentor or leader or father, and he isn't given a second to mourn him, which is anathema to the whole religion he dedicated his life to. No, he can't take a moment to sit down and breathe because he is a manager, so he has to manage. He is then forced into suspecting his brothers and his friends, and he breaks into the Holy Father's room, because his conscience wouldn't let it rest. And then he sees the Pope's glasses and breaks down in one of the ugliest fits of weeping I remember seeing in movies.
It is such a realistic portrayal of grief and how it sneaks upon you in the most unbecoming ways and unexpected moments.
So I heard good things about the movie Conclave, so as a dutiful little post-Catholic weirdo with lingering baggage, I gave it a watch and was thoroughly entertained. I highly recommend it.
But one of the reasons why it's been getting so much discussion is that people keep comparing it to Drag Race and making it out to be this campy drama full of gossip and machinations. And while those elements are there, and I certainly endorse taking that approach to analysis, I also can't help but wonder. I wonder if the reason why people are clocking it as a glam gossip drama is because they don't have enough lived experience with Catholicism, and its most vociferous adherents that they can't clock the sincerity when they witness it.
There is a mundane hierarchical jockeying aspect to it, and that cannot be denied, but the true fascination in the experience, the creeping horror of it, is to see dudes who have completely convinced themselves of their own self righteousness that they believe Performative Humility is Genuine Submission to God's Will. There's a bit that carries through the film that says "nobody who acts like they WANT to be pope SHOULD be pope", but that unto itself is a form of performance. It's the most insidious kind of grandstanding because it's the kind that can convince the performer themself that it's genuine. It can make them think: "I've eaten enough humble pie to prove I'm a good person, so I don't have to continue the work of self examination."
In my opinion, that sort of performance has less in common with high glam ego-driven drag competition, and more in common, say, with online political posturing, the contest to appear most sociopolitically aware and self-flagellatory. To prove how good one is by being loudest about confessing how bad one is. And maybe some people aren't ready to make that connection because they don't want to believe that old dudes in church are capable of the same kinds of mental gymnastics to pursue their own self-interests as the most liberated, educated, and media savvy online commentator.
A week of having the first american pope.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/65109013
