The pope is dead, the throne is vacant, and Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is left in charge of finding a worthy successor. This is the main conflict of Edward Berger’s two-hour epic Conclave, a pressure-cooker concept where the natural progression of a religious institution may lead to its destruction. 

Two years ago, Berger became a household name with All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), a harrowing World War 1 epic that deconstructed nationalist belief. Conclave deals with all matters of religious belief and whether in an ever-changing world, it can truly exist as it once did. Fiennes’ Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with overseeing the election of 5 potential popes: John Lithgow’s Cardinal Tremblay is mild-mannered if not shady, Stanley Tucci’s Cardinal Bellini seems the sensible choice though he proves unpopular, Sergio Castellitto’s Cardinal Tedesco favours tradition and theatrics, while Lucian Msamati’s Cardinal Adeyemi is another conservative with a dark secret, finally there’s Carlos Diehz as late newcomer Cardinal Benitez who tries to pry his way into the popular vote. Beneath the marble exterior of the Vatican is Isabella Rossellini’s Sister Agnes, a quiet woman who keeps the operation running while noting the whispers that surround her. 

Conclave shines in its exploration of each of these people’s inner conflicts, troubled pasts, and moral consciousness on where the Catholic Church must go. A common occurrence in the film is for Cardinal Lawrence to send his assistant Monsignor O’Malley (Brían F. O’Byrne) to investigate rumours of the candidate’s schemes and pasts, only for him to dismiss O’Malley as he cannot become aware of information that may sway his vote. This behaviour that extends to the rest of the cardinals has resulted in Conclave being hailed by many as a film about religious gossip, the Vatican becomes an American high school, where a rosary turns into a friendship bracelet. But this is so much more than that, it’s a take on religion that casts questions of morality into an inferno, when you’re part of an institution with a history of scandal does morality become a dealbreaker? 

The old institutions are an integral part of the main performances. Fiennes, Lithgow, Tucci, and Rossellini are performers that belong to a golden age of stage and screen acting from the late 20th century, and they’re able to bring their knowledge of the old worlds of performance to this film. Conclave, for all its religious commentary, can often be an extremely strange film. Shocking twists, absurd scandals, cartoonish scheming, and a cardinal hitting his vape that matches the colour of his robes, it thrives in its ability to balance its responsibility as a religious thriller and a pure crowd-pleaser. The main performers bring a gravitas to their characters, they acknowledge the absurd heights they must reach while playing their characters 100% seriously. Castelitto, Msamati, and Diehz also manage to achieve this, despite being lesser-known names, through their own backgrounds in theatre. I am most familiar with Msamati’s performance as Iago in a 2015 Royal Shakespeare Company performance of Othello, so it was wonderful to see him carry over that heightened evil to Cardinal Adeyemi, while also possessing a sense of humility and vulnerability that is absent in Iago. Their characters become part of their performance, a diverse group who have grown disillusioned with tradition and believe something must change, this disbelief in the modern state of acting matters just as much as disillusionment with modern-day religion, if something is to change who will decide it? 

Faith is restored and broken within the marble confines of the Vatican City. Production designer Suzie Davies has recreated the famous city in all its scale and former glory. The marble looks as if it is just about being kept alive while looming staircases become stages for gossiping sessions to play out. Pillars look down on our cardinals and judge them for their prolonged election, oil paintings spread across entire walls act as a personal God for every man that steps up to the altar to cast his vote. The atmosphere feels airy yet oppressive, not entirely sinister but lacking in holiness. The cardinals sleep in never-ending corridors and eat in military halls, they are not there by choice, they are summoned by God to perform this task. Every part of Conclave is intricately designed to make the audience feel intimidated by religious institutions, and yet we can also look down on them as the pillars do. They look small and miniature in every church and every hall, we become their God. A caring God, a pitying God. Berger mixes a story of faith with the voyeuristic nature of cinema and turns the audience into a holy figure watching their soldiers squabble and fight over the next religious authority for a million people to follow.

Conclave is such a deeply rich text that cannot be truly described in words, a Biblical sight meant only for the most devoted prophet. Edward Berger has turned a normal thriller novel into a slowly pacing, fiery damnation of religious fanaticism and questions of change through democracy. By the time the new Pope is elected, we cannot fathom whether anything will change. Will the church become more progressive? Will it return to tradition and wage a holy war against the rest of the world? Will God ever forgive us? Only the Pope knows.

Words by Waseet Ahmed Naser

Featured image courtesy of Grant Whitty via Unsplash. No changes have been made to the image.