The movie “Conclave”, which competed for 8 Oscar statuettes this year and has been awarded as the best adapted script, is an opportunity for the public to learn about the various steps that lead to the choice of a head of the Catholic Church after the death of his predecessor.
Although with some artistic licenses adopted by the script, the political thriller passed within the Vatican has several similarities with the real voting process, experts.
The film, directed by Edward Berger, the same director of the remake of “Nothing New on Front two years ago, is based on a novel by Briton Robert Harris published in 2016. The work is available in Brazil and for streaming on
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In history, the meeting is presided by Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who needs to conduct the vote that opposes progressive forces, represented by Bellini (Stanley Tucci), and conservative, with Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto). Also in the dispute is Tremblay (John Lithgow). Secrets and clashes bring several twists before the final choice.
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In addition to the script, it caught a lot of public attention to the workers’ concern with the rituals, places and scene objects, as well as the costumes of the characters.
But are these portrayed rituals really true to a real conclave? Overall, Reverend Thomas Reese, columnist of the Religion News Service and PH.D. in Political Science from the University of Berkeley, said yes to the NPR report. He quoted the closed meeting without contact with the outside world and the accommodation of cardinals as an example.
In addition, “the voting procedure has been very well done,” said Reese, citing that the urns used were perfect replicas of what is really used in the burning of banknotes [de onde saem as fumaças preta e branca do Vaticano].
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Already Massimo Faggioli, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, commented that it was very difficult to render a choice of this magnitude in a film. And then there is a simplification of church politics between conservatives and progressives that the script shows. “The progressive/conservative thing is much easier to present and for the public to follow,” Faggioli said in an interview with RNS. “But the conclave is always a lot of different issues on the agenda,” he added.
About the setting looks very close to the real, the screenwriter Peter Straughan told the newspaper USA Today that your team took a private tour of the Vatican. “It was a great research project. It’s a fascinating and theatrical world, so you want to get these details right. It’s a very sumptuous thing.”
However, although most filming happened in Rome – a city full of marble buildings of centuries of centuries similar to church officers – it is not allowed to film within the Vatican. The interiors of the Sistine Chapel, for example, were recreated in the studio, and even famous ceiling painted by Michelangelo is a computer -generated replica.
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Reese detected some inaccuracies, the most important being a violation of confession confession that is used in the plot. In addition, the film incorrectly shows cardinals burning banknotes after the first vote instead of the second choice of the conclave, he said. There are smaller “sins”, such as cardinals wearing mass garments instead of choir robes upon entering the chapel, and the use of the title “Father” when the cardinals go to each other.
Perhaps the largest failure found is participation in the vote of a “in pectore” cardinal (an important figure in the plot). In fact, his name could only be accepted if he had been officially announced by the Pope before he died, which was not the case in the film, experts said.
