tiff24: 'conclave' review

By Nadia Dalimonte

Ralph Fiennes in Conclave (2024)

The process of electing a new Pope is usually hidden from the outside world. Like a covert operation, the most powerful Cardinal members of the Catholic Church gather behind closed Vatican doors to define a new era. As several frontrunners emerge, the cardinals face a growing volume of competing interests and conflicting beliefs. This centuries-old ritual is closely guarded by Cardinal Lawrence, who struggles between the lines of faith, doubt, and religious duty. He oversees a powerful game of politics from the clinical rooms of the Vatican. Author Robert Harris saw the literary potential and wrote the bestselling 2016 novel Conclave, a thriller with cinematic sensibilities as Edward Berger’s marvelous-looking film adaptation proves. In his follow up to the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front, Berger’s Conclave enlightens one of the most mysterious events through a riveting web of secrets and lies.

When the beloved Pope suddenly dies, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with managing the inner workings of voting for a new leader. The process requires that all cardinals be sequestered to avoid outside influence of world events. In the Sistine Chapel where voting takes place, cardinals from around the world secretly wield their overlapping views against each other in pursuit of power. On the surface, they work in quiet audacity. Behind the scenes, their true intentions are hidden between sacred walls, only coming to light when certain accusations and revelations spiral out of their control. The responsibility to keep this conclave in order falls on Lawrence, who listens carefully to the cardinals’ concerns and must ensure that the election unfolds in full transparency. As such, Lawrence goes head-to-head with quite a few ambitious figures willing to manipulate their way to the throne.

Lawrence finds himself undertaking a duty he never thought he had to perform. He was ready to leave Rome altogether and reexamine his own deeply conflicted faith, but his request had been denied by the Pope. Lawrence walks a fine line between questioning his beliefs in the religious institution, and listening to the urges of those impassioned to fight for it. Cardinal Secretary of State Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) stresses that liberals must unite to stop people like Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), whose antiquated views threaten to undo the progress made by Bellini’s supporters. Conservative Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) is of particular interest; being the last person to have conversed with the Pope, Tremblay might be pulling strings on the late leader’s behalf. The arrival of Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) from Afghanistan also stirs conversation and leads to an intriguing development.

The screenplay by Peter Straughan excels at highlighting all these characters not just by their power rankings, but by their human failings. Focusing on Lawrence at the center of potential controversies and schemes raise the stakes, as he himself is a contradictory character. His personal doubts cast a shadow of uncertainty across the Vatican, causing other cardinals to question his ambitions and whether his inquisitiveness is a ploy to support his own candidacy. “You need to pick a side,” Bellini demands to Lawrence. The future of the Catholic Church depends on it. Investigative interactions between cardinals helps to unveil a tense mystery at the film’s core.

Berger’s superb direction creaks open the doors of an electoral system that had long been shrouded in secrecy. He makes use of multiple locations, from offices and staircases to theater rooms and courtyards. No stone is left unturned. No corner is without the whispers of corruption. Even the seals of the late Pope’s quarters are not enough protection, nor the beautifully painted walls of the Sistine Chapel. The deeper into this conclave the film goes, the less places there are to hide from an antiquated foundation that needs to be disrupted.

Conclave has an astounding visual uniformity that adds to the story’s ritualistic nature. While the cardinals elect in a place of pristine historical beauty, they are sequestered in clinical-looking environments. The inner workings of the conclave are really a mundane series of human failings. Stéphane Fontaine’s cinematography illuminates cold interiors and basks in the sterile light. Suzie Davies’ detailed production design distinguishes between the many spaces cardinals occupy and gather in, the theater room being a tremendous highlight.

We often see the cardinals move wherever they please, like using their phones in the courtyard. Whereas the group of sisters in the film, overseen by Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), fade into shadows and backgrounds. Lisy Christl's costume design incorporates a uniform approach between the cardinals wearing red and the sisters wearing blue. The colors red and blue play a striking role in the film's color palette. In addition to the visuals, the sound and score of Conclave reverberate. Much like composer Volker Bertelmann’s Oscar-winning work for Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front, here Bertelmann creates another distinctive score that utilizes a minimal variety of notes. The music intensifies increasingly tense narrative developments, as do an accomplished group of actors.

With a cast like Conclave’s, to deem one actor best in show would be to compliment the work of another, as this ensemble finds an incredibly collaborative groove together. Part of the mystery and thrill of this story is watching the characters bounce off each other. Though it takes an actor of immense gravitas and control to set a consistent energy for the supporting players to orbit around. The film has its unwavering leader in Ralph Fiennes, whose towering talent reaches new heights as Cardinal Lawrence. Every close-up of Fiennes is a blessing to understanding not just the nuances of his character, but the complexities of the institution he wrestles with. Fiennes walks the line between faith and doubt in a compelling magnitude.

The supporting players have brief moments to shine, and they do so with the reliability one comes to expect. Isabella Rossellini has a standout scene when her character unexpectedly breaks a vow of silence with damning truths. Carlos Diehz, making his feature film acting debut, stands out in a stunning scene where Cardinal Benitez questions what the other cardinals know about war. Benitez also personifies a bold and startling twist that leaves much to ruminate on, as this entire conclave procedural does.

From the artistry behind the camera to the terrific actors in front of it, Conclave explores political tension in a fresh and fittingly disruptive manner.