Conclave – Cardinals and Conundrums
Written by Zoe Crombie
If there’s one thing that film as a medium for storytelling excels in, it’s igniting our wildest fantasies about events we’d never have a hope of experiencing in reality, transforming them into a spectacle inside which we can feel immediately present. Most of us never get access to the secret sects, heated jury rooms and government offices that movies like 12 Angry Men, Eyes Wide Shut, and All the President’s Men depict, even if we hear about the events that took place there after the fact. As such, our minds can run wild with what went on behind the scenes, and no film of this year has more fun with this concept than Edward Berger’s Conclave.
The latest film from the All Quiet on the Western Front director, Conclave centres the investigations of Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence as he and the College of Cardinals gather in the papal conclave to select a new Pope – but what are the candidates hiding? Played by Ralph Fiennes, Lawrence as a character is a superb balance of intensity and camp, and the playground of the conclave is ripe with absurd secrets and scandals around every turn. Shot by cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, tiny details are blown up to papal proportions, with the visuals and screenplay working in tandem to deepen the mysteries at hand.
Pulling off some fantastic twists with the help of a fabulous ensemble (including Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini) lead by Fiennes at his best, Conclave is a pulpy and enticing exploration of one of the most secretive events that still takes place in modern history.
See Conclave Friday 13th - Sun 22nd December.
