At the start of Nanni Moretti’s wonderful rich and glorious
new movie the College of Cardinals are shuttered away in the Vatican to go
through the traditional ritual of choosing a new Pope in great secrecy now that
the last one has shuffled off his mortal coil.
As the camera scans down the long line of these scarlet clad old men
each one of them is desperately praying so he doesn’t get chosen. They all look like that cannot cope with
pressure of this enormous task even though they will inevitably choose yet another
really old man who has barely a few years left on earth and thus will soon be
back to sit through the whole painful process yet once again before you can say
many Hail Marys!
This time there are a few rounds of voting stalemate and
the results are evenly divided between the predicted front-runners. Then with one
accord a large majority switch their secret votes to elect the relatively unknown Cardinal Melville as a
compromise candidate. Of course he is not that at all, as everyone keeps repeating,
rather it is ‘the will of God’. And it’s
because of this fact, that a rather distraught Melville accepts the job of
being the next Pontiff
The white smoke is signaled from the Vatican to the
waiting crowds in St Peters Square below that the election is over and
everybody waits for the new Pope to make his first appearance in the balcony to
make his address to the faithful. He is
all bedecked in his new white papal finery and so one of the cardinals goes
ahead and to announce him but midway through the speech the Pope sitting in an
antechamber loses his nerve and screams out loud and runs back to his private
apartments, leaving everyone hanging in mid air.
Doctors are called and they declare the Pope physically
well, so they send for a psychotherapist even though they are not really
approved of by the church, well the Catholic one anyway. There is one a hilarious scene where the
Cardinals place so many obstacles in the psychiatrist’s path that it is nigh on
impossible for him to conduct a proper consultation. He does however recommend that maybe his
wife, who is also a Psychiatrist who is obsessed with the theory of
‘parental deficit’, could maybe be more helpful to the Pope’s present state.
That said the Cardinals then advise the hapless Shrink that for obvious
security reasons he cannot be allowed to leave the Vatican in case any word
about the Pope’s state leaked out. In
fact despite all the media speculation, even the identity of the new Pope had not
been revealed yet and they claimed he was still locked away praying and seeking
help from God for his new task.
In great secrecy the Pope is dressed in ‘civvies’ and
whisked away to the Psychiatrist’s Consulting Room for a private appointment. He tells his minder that he needs some fresh air so will walk for awhile but he then
suddenly manages give them the slip, and is at last alone in Rome. As no one has the faintest idea who he is, he
soon becomes just another anonymous stranger in the city. He befriends members of a local theatrical troupe
and professes that he has really wanted to be an actor all his life.
Meanwhile back in the cloistered confines of the
Vatican the frustrated Psychiatrist takes it upon himself to organize card
games and a Volleyball Tournament that not only distracts the Clerics but works them
up into unaccustomed excitable competitive fervor.
The Pope’s PR man hasn't fessed up to the Cardinals that the Boss is
missing so he secretly installs one of the Swiss Guards in the Pope’s private apartments
telling him to just keep ruffling the curtains so the waiting crowds below, and
the Cardinals, will think he is there
and meditating.
It is a very delightful tragicomedy that certainly
makes fun out of the situation and all the pomp and circumstance of the Vatican,
but is never anything less that respectful to the Church itself. The wonderful French actor Michel Piccoli who brings such love to
the lead role makes this highly emotional story plausible. Aged 86, this veteran of some over 200
movies, and winner of countless of Awards would have so got my vote for Pope
too. The psychiatrist was played by writer/director
Morreti a multi-talented award-winning filmmaker that excels both sides of the
camera (Check out 'Quiet Chaos' I blogged last year). I was so impressed with all the shots of the
Vatican that I was convinced that they must have made the entire movie in situ instead of a Sound Stage at the Cinecitte Studios as I later found out.
And then there is the final scene of the movie that I
was totally unprepared for and which took the wind from my sails. It took the story to another level, and if I
was cynical (!) and this had been a Hollywood production then I would have
assumed that they had set themselves up to make a sequel. But it isn’t, so I guess we will never know
what happened next. God willing or not!
I am not religious at all but when it comes to movies
I do have catholic tastes (note the small c) and this is definitely one that
fits in with that.
Unmissable.
★★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★★
