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We Have a Pope
| Released |
2 December 2011 |
| Director |
Nanni Moretti |
Starring
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Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa, Franco Graziosi, Camillo Milli, Roberto Nobile, Ulrich von Dobschutz |
Writer(s)
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Nanni Moretti, Francesco Piccolo, Frederica Pontremoli |
Producer(s)
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Jean Labadie, Nanni Moretti, Domenico Procacci |
| Origin |
Italy, France |
| Running Time |
102 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Rating |
TBC |
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An ecumenical matter.
We Have A Pope is really something of a novelty; a film about the inner workings of the Catholic Church with nary a sight of a mad monk, rogue exorcist or faithless priest. Co-written and directed by Nanni Moretti, who has previously skewered Berlusconi in his film Il Caimano, We Have A Pope also sees a satirical hand at work but with a lighter touch. The target is not the Catholic Church as an institution or of religion itself but more the central idea of the papacy; that through the election by his peers, a regular man can be transformed into the infallible representative of God on earth.
The film begins in the Vatican with the burial of a Pope and the arrival of the Cardinals who will elect a successor from among their ranks. In a lovely scene, we hear the silent prayers of these men, “Please Lord, not me!” When eventually a man is chosen (Michel Piccoli), we see the terror in his eyes and sure enough, just before he is to make his first address, the new Pope becomes crippled with anxiety and refuses to do as he should. A psychoanalyst (played by Moretti himself) is brought into the Vatican to attempt to cure the new Pontiff.
It’s an intriguing original idea; the kind of thing that feels like it should have been made before. Humour is important here and it veers between gentle surrealism (the Cardinals playing a volleyball tournament to cheer their ill leader) and a little light satire mined from the interaction between religion and psychoanalysis. None of it rocks the boat but often raises a chuckle. The film looks lovely and the reconstruction of the inner chambers of the Vatican are well realised - there is a real sense of the place as a hermetically sealed environment kept locked up by weight of tradition. The performances are also top notch. Moretti has a good dry comic delivery and Piccoli is lovely as the reluctant Pope. He is a likable, if irascible man struggling between his strong faith and his own shortcomings as a human being.
We Have a Pope is definitely worth a look. It’s not nearly as dry as a plot synopsis might suggest, instead exuding a playfulness that is deeply endearing.
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Linda O’Brien |
