Conclave
Edward Berger, 2024
★★★★
“Conclave”, from the director who won the Oscar last year for “All Quiet on the Western Front”, is a film that delivers what it promises, showing us what the process is followed to choose a new Pope of the Catholic Church, presenting it as a political thriller that explores the human and ambitious side of those who participate.
The story begins with the sudden death of the Pope, which forces an urgent meeting of the Council of Cardinals to hold a conclave and elect a new pontiff. Dean Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with presiding over the election process, and his optimism and faith are tested by the personal ambitions, alliances and secrets he has to face, and which force him to go from being an executor. passive to an active one that ensures a good conclusion to the conclave.
One of the strongest points of the film is that all the main characters, including Lawrence, have more than one face, they are complex characters who have contradictory thoughts and attitudes, which not only lends itself to being suspicious and fueling the mysteries of the plot, but so that the actors shine and give us very emotional and interesting scenes.
The cast includes well-known names in addition to Fiennes, such as John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini.
The key to a thriller, which leads the viewer to change their ideas or assumptions, and which keeps us in suspense regarding the result, is what makes it move forward and what maintains the viewer’s interest at all times.
But the film is not only about how a new Pope is chosen, or about the mystery of who will succeed him, but about all the current issues that could influence it: the modern visions of openness to many controversial issues for religion, or the conservative visions that try to protect what the church and society have gained, the human ambitions of the cardinals from which the new pontiff will come, the political pressures, and the marked difference between sexes that exists within the Vatican.
All this with the aesthetic and impressive images of the Vatican. The director places the camera so that the architecture that surrounds our characters is visible at all times, and even dares to create scenes to define specific moments with a loaded visual meaning.
Quite an experience.
A very powerful film, with a mix of beauty and tension, passion and calm, even a little humor, with deep themes and extraordinary performances, which lead us by the hand to the ambitious, controversial, but excellent conclusion.
It is worth highlighting the extraordinary participation of the Mexican actor Carlos Diehz, speaking in English and Spanish correctly, and making a more than worthy participation.
So far it seems to me to be one of the best, if not the best, film of last year, capable of being controversial without denigrating good cinema.
H.V.
