MOVIE REVIEW: Conclave (Dir. Edward Berger, 2024)

'This is a conclave, Aldo. It's not a war.'

I’m well aware that I am very late in this one. Despite originally releasing in the UK last November, Conclave, is the first new film for me this March. The wonder of awards season, however, is that these sorts of movies hang around forever and you can use dead weeks like this one in order to fill in any misssed gaps. At least no one can argue that I’m writing this as a way to piggyback off the press surrounding the film given that the hype Conclave accumulated at the BAFTAs seems to have dissipated following what must be viewed as a disappointing evening at last night’s Academy Awards.

Conclave, is the new ecclesiastical drama from Edward Berger, the director behind the dreadful 2022 remake of All Quiet on the Western Front which the Academy bewilderingly fell in love with at the 2023 awards. The most significant thing I can say about, Conclave, is that it is a much greater work than, All Quiet on the Western Front. For all of my apprehensions about, Conclave, I feel more than comfortable recommending it to anyone interested. The film follows Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) who, as the Dean of the College of Cardinals, has been entrusted with ensuring that the papal electoral conclave is carried out and a new pope is crowned. The narrative focuses on the political manoeuvrings of various factions: the more liberal group hoping to elect Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), and the reactionary Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto). Also in the running are the self-serving and ambitious Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), the Nigerian conservative candidate, Cardinal Adeyemi, and, as the film’s revelations expose elements of the true natures of these individuals, Lawrence himself finds himself unwillingly dragged into the race alongside the mysterious newcomer, Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz).

Advertised in some circles as a ‘political thriller’, I found, Conclave, to be less concerned with genuine political movement as it is the question of what the Catholic Church is in the third decade of the twentieth century. We are confronted with questions regarding the Church’s relationship with race, technology, geopolitics, and gender. Catholic, in the Latinised Greek: Katholikos, means the ‘universal’ church, and, to my eyes, Conclave, is a film which is trying to get at the heart of the possibility of a universal community in an age which feels irreparably divided. The surface level ideological battle is played out between Tucci and Castellitto. The deceased Pope, modelled on, but not directly, the incumbent Pope Francis, spearheaded a number of liberal reforms within the Church which were supported by Tucci, but Cardinal Tedesco would demand a return to a more traditionalist, Latin heavy, Church which takes a harder line on what he describes as modern ‘relativism’. Cardinal Tedesco, with his large support base amongst the College, is portrayed as the enemy which Tucci’s faction must defeat at all cost, lest the Church regress and only become more insular and alienating to the people at large. And yet, it is Stanley Tucci, with his false humility, his snide jabs at Fiennes, and willingness to throw his support behind the reprehensible Tremblay over Fiennes once it becomes clear that he has no chance to become Pope himself, that finds himself embodying the sinisterly bland neoliberal politicians that proliferate contemporary politics. It becomes clearer as the film goes on that this either of these outcomes is an inadequate solution to the question being asked. One imagines that either outcome would do nothing to help mend the cracks which have begun to show in Fiennes’s faith in God and the institution which represents Him.

The contrast between the contemporary world and the traditions of the Church constantly bombards the viewer throughout the film both thematically and directly within the mise-en-scene. I’d be lying if I said the literal inner workings of the conclave ceremony and its interaction with modern technology wasn’t the part of the film I found most compelling. Whilst everyone on social media has had their fun pointing out the Cardinals with iPhones and Cardinal Tedesco’s infamous vape pen, I think what struck me most was the manner in which Ralph Fiennes navigates the beautifully recreated Sistine Chapel, adorned in full vestments, and discussing the implementation of signal jamming technology within the Conclave with a security contractor. It seems obvious that all of these modern technological interventions would be present in the lives of those who run the Catholic Church in the twenty-first century, and yet it so clashes with our imagined image of this organisation which claims its routes back to St Peter in the first century c.e. and whose rituals have been so codified since the Middle Ages. Obviously, this all ties back thematically into the whole idea of being sequestered. The Cardinals are literally sequestered by the rules and conditions of the duty that they have undertaken, and the arcana of the rituals are still in place, but they are unable to prevent the incursion of the outside world no matter what they try. This is literally represented in the closest sequence the film has to a set piece, which I will not spoil here. The ballot papers are burned with a high tech fire-lighter, doused in artificial blackener from a chemical can, and sent to the chimney through an elaborate release system complete with numerical countdown and flashing lights. In, Conclave, there is a sense that the Roman Catholic Church will always be dragged along by the world its members live in, and even though this may cause doubt, it is the mystery of what this world is and what The Church’s role in that that is which allows it to continue, regardless of whoever is actually in charge. As the Pope is selected and the true nature of their life is revealed, it becomes more apparent that Conclave is a film which is optimistic about the future of The Church and what it can mean for our increasingly complex and unclear world.

Conclave, is a fine film. It unfortunately lacks a lot of the dramatic tension that a film with this many reveals and political strategy needs in order to be truly engaging. It probably would not have received the level of acclaim that it has had it being made in an older cinematic climate where this type of film was more common. The performances are strong, and with a murderers row of esteemed character actors you’d expect nothing less. The film is also wonderfully cinematic for a story which is primarily men in rooms talking, and there are a number of examples of pitch perfect blocking and image construction on screen. It is worth your time, and perhaps you will be more won over by the narrative, because I am sadly left wondering how a film about electing the Holy Father could feel so devoid of stakes.

Ryan Sweeney (@thecautiouscrip/insta: teawithzizek)