This Italian movie (English subtitles), billed as a comedy opens with a funeral. Actually it is the real footage of the funeral of the real Pope John Paul. It is very impressive and I believe this scene is the key to the movie that follows. We watch the procession of the chanting 108 Cardinals. Soon we are given closeups of the serious demeanor of their faces. Some of these faces, have their name and home country printed to show us the authenticity of what we are viewing and even though we may not realize it, we have actually moved smoothly into the fictitious tale that is the film we are going to see. This quality of the genuine persists throughout the movie. We feel honored that we are invited into the Apostolic Palace, but actually we are seeing a very faithful replica that has been built for our seduction to believe this is real. In fact one of the pleasures of this movie is that it takes us into a place that is shielded from public eyes, and as the story moves along we are vicarious participants in the beautiful rooms of the Palace. We enjoy the gardens, and the sight of the Pope’s guards doing marching exercises dressed in medieval armor or the attendants in striped doublets and berets, we look at with a sophisticated glance after the first few frames. As the Cardinals continue their slow march we have a look at St. Peters Square which is filled with thousands of faithful Catholics who are going to wait there and be the first to hear who the new pope will be. The Cardinals file into the Sistine Chapel where they are to remain in total isolation…no communication allowed until they select the new pope. The reporters are told they must leave.
The Cardinals sit at long tables with tablets and pens. Printed names and countries are shown as the camera moves along and rests here and there. We see that they are from all over the world. They are thoughtful, write, erase, ponder, tap their pens, steal a glance at another s selections, and as the camera goes along them, we hear their mutterings to themselves which are different renditions of Please, Lord, let it not be me. Day turns into night, and into day again as the faithful wait. they watch the smoke come out the chimney. the cardinals must burn all their notes…not one tell tale item of what occurs there can be allowed , lest it escape. the burning makes a black smoke and when the smoke turns to white, signifying it is only heat and not paper burning, the crowd grows intense and emotional with the suspense of the decision of what Cardinal will be God’s messenger to the people. After 3 days (there are still people waiting in the square) they select a colleague named Melville (played by 86 yr old Michel Piccoli, a renowned French actor). He gives a wan smile, but the Cardinals are jubilant as they hurry to dress him in papal robes. He is formally asked by them if he accepts the commitment to be Pope. He hesitates, seems to have some deep reflection and says without joy, ” Yes”. Now they need to go out on the balcony and announce that the new pope will address the cheering crowd. No name is given. Melville asks hesitantly, what do I do?
A colleague tells him that their late beloved Pope, blessed the crowd when he was elected. It was just the right choice so that would be a good pattern to follow. This was the wrong thing to say we will soon see. Melville takes a seat, looks thoughtful, and resigned. Then he wildly jumps up and starts to scream hysterically…I can’t do it…I can’t do it and runs from the room. He runs through the Chapel, finds a vacant room, throws himself down and sobs…huge crying sobs. His heart is breaking.
They find him but they cannot convince him to go out on the balcony and be introduced as the new Pope. Until he does that, not a soul can know who the new Pope is. It is has to be officially announced on the balcony. Until that happens, no one can say his name and the rules of isolation cannot be lifted. They must remain sequestered.
Days pass. Some people leave, but not many. the vigil is kept. The cardinals don’t know what to do. They have had many doctors examine Melville. He appears to be in excellent health. They make a decision. They will try psychoanalysis. They select an analyst and tell him they are doubtful this will work as they believe that the Soul and the Sub conscious cannot exist together. The analysts name is Professor Bruzzi. ( the analyst is played by the director of the film, Nanni Moretti) He is not overjoyed at being selected but they have selected him as he is the best. He concurs with that opinion, but it has caused him some pain. He tells them that his wife left him (she is also a psychoanalyst) because she couldn’t bear living with someone who was the best and it wasn’t her. He said he thought she was the best, but that didn’t satisfy her, nor did it make her happy to be second best, so she left and he misses her.
He has a charming manner that puts people at ease. He wants to know his patients name. they cannot tell him as it is not announced yet and so no one can know the name of the new pope. He tries to explain it works better for the therapy…makes it friendlier and warmer if he can use the name of the patient. They are unbending . He gives it up…but becomes aware of other restrictions he may have. He says he understands he can’t ask questions about sex, but as subject matter can he refer to the patients mother. No!…his childhood? No!….dreams and unfulfilled fantasies No! He asks everyone to leave as he needs to be alone with the patient for therapy. . The 107 Cardinals around him are not going to leave. They are a family, and there they stay. Brucci is asked, are you a believer? He says No. This is upsetting to them but they are won over by his charm and he begins his treatment. As they continue to talk to each other and voice concerns about the questions he asks Melville, he admonishes them to keep quiet but their presence is a big problem for him.
Brucci asks Melville very kindly if he is having concerns about his faith. Melville is firm. His faith is strong and stable . that is not the problem. He asks his patient to consider how it would be if he were to become to become the Pope. Melville looks haughtily at him, and says, there is no” if” to consider. He is the Pope because God has chosen him. It is not going well, and the Professor decides enough for now…another session will be made, and he prepares to leave. Instead he is told that he cannot leave until the Pope is announced however long that is going to take, and furthermore he must relinquish his cell phone as he can have no contact with the outside. He needs to talk to his children, let alone his patients, but to no avail. they show him to a room that he will be living in until this is resolved.
Evidently subsequent sessions don’t go well either because the Pope’s chief of staff decides that if they plant guards everywhere along the route, they will sneak the Pope out of the Vatican and take him to see Professor Bruzzi’s wife because maybe she is really the best as her husband says.
They do this, and we see him in her office. She doesn’t know who he is or anything about him. She is the female counterpart of Bruzzi, kind, gentle, searching. She tries to get some information about him, asking if he is married, has children and he just looks at her trying to make sense of this. She asks him what he does? He doesn’t understand…she says , your work what do you do? He stumbles with this…perhaps he is not going to answer, finally he has a look of satisfaction and tells her he is an actor. He tells her how much it means to him to be acting. And the session comes to a close.
As his guard companions take him back to the Vatican, he runs away, and all the guards
throughout the route cannot find him. the Pope is lost.
He wanders through the city, unknown, looking at ordinary people about their business. there seems to be a satisfaction in this to him. He wanders into a department store..a beautiful one given to perfumes, jewelry, lots of glass and mirrors. But he is an old man, and he is tired, thirsty, looking very fragile. A young attractive saleslady realizes he is in need, and comes up to him thinking he is lost. She gets him some water, but cannot find out where he lives and decides he is confused. As he starts to leave, she takes his arm and tells him to wait a bit until she is done for the day. She will take him to the bus stop and wait with him to see that he gets on the right bus he needs. He turns on her in great anger…similar to his outburst that he could not talk to the crowd. He is violent and he wants her to leave him alone. She is shocked and frightened at the sudden rage and he rushes out into the street. It is interesting that this caring attractive young woman is the only one with whom he has an outburst. He is conducting himself in all other ways as a polite genteel elderly man. He goes to a coffee shop, has coffee and a donut, and eventually finds a run down hotel where he gets a room.
In the rooms next to him, there is an acting troupe who is rehearsing for the Seagull. He is fascinated by them, enjoys them, and he makes friends. One day he even goes back to see the analyst. He hasn’t ‘made an appointment. He waits until she comes out of the building and gets in her car with her and her children. As he talks to her we learn that he wanted to be an actor and studied hard for it, especially for the Seagull. He knows the lines by heart. He failed to get selected at the audition but the acting school took his sister. She was better than he was. He tells the analyst this because he is uncomfortable that he lied to her. Everything about Melville reveals an honest, humble, competent and fine person who was a good choice. But his anguish about being pope tears him apart. He never tells us why, and there is no indication that it overwhelms him or that he cannot fulfill what is expected of him. We only know he is suffering.
All of these adventures take many days. Back at the Vatican, Professor Bruzzi is still kept prisoner. However , he is not alone as the Cardinals cannot leave either, and there they are forced to live together. On Sunday, a few of them appear nattily dressed in street clothes as they intend to go out to a famous restaurant for brunch. They learn that leaving even in disguise is forbidden.
Professor Bruzzi, the analyst, acts, well, he acts like an analyst. I didn’t feel this movie made fun of the analysts at all. It is a comedy, but the humor of what they do is very kind, and quite accurate. Being an analyst…, he reads.
He is reading the Bible as it is the only book they allow him to have. True to his profession, he teaches
He walks around the room where they are trying to pass the time in pointless conversation, with the bible open in his arms and says to them that the bible is full of stories that show depression. He addresses several men and reads to them from the Bible, and explains how this is a perfect example of depression. He leads, organizes, takes an authoritative position, and attends to the immediate problem in a practical constructive fashion. He organizes world sports games. He has been up all night and has made a playing court for a tournament to take place. He divides up the 107 cardinals, and gives them countries that they will represent when they have this world tournament. Many of them want to be Italy, but he is firm. Only so many can be Italy, and the rest are assigned different countries. He gives the rules of the games and the Cardinals have great joy as they run around, compete, and enjoy the thrills of winning games, and acknowledge the sorrows in being losers. He plays
He plays cards with them….gets them all distracted in light hearted conversation so they don’t concentrate on winning…and he wins the card game. he is still the teacher, so he tells them what he purposely did…distract..so they can do it next time.
This enforced isolation could have made them petty and angry, but because of the analyst leading the camp, it seems to be not a bad experience. The chief of Staff has discovered by now where the Pope is. He is going to be at the theater for the opening night when his friends are performing the Seagull. These are the worst actors ever. One old man while saying his lines, also adds the stage directions to his dialogue. (this was done by Carl Reiner years ago in a hysterically funny play called Enter Laughing…but no one laughed at it in this movie theater..maybe they thought that was the way it was supposed to be)
During a dramatic moment in Seagull, the theater is quickly encompassed from every entry by the medieval dressed Vatican guards and attendants, and the Pope is brought back home. We are now in the final scene of the movie and are back on the balcony at the Vatican overlooking St. Peters Square which is filled with the thousands of worshipers. There is elation, anticipation, suspense, excitement. Introductory remarks are made and the Pope advances..but at the moment he opens his mouth to give a blessing from a new Pope, he asks forgiveness for what he is about to do, and says he cannot be Pope.
We are so used to movies where the last scene is arrived at with a new strength or inspiration discovered for the faltering main character, and all ends upbeat with a promise of strength arriving when its needed, that this turn of events did not make the audience happy. The man sitting next to me said as much…that the ending ruined a good movie.
But I saw the classic story of a son who could not replace his father whose funeral we watched at the beginning, and of the havoc it raised in him such as his violent outburst when the young woman tried to help and his suffering in trying not to self destruct and to follow Gods choice and take his responsibility all of which he failed. It Seemed authentic in character portrayal to me interestingly presented as a comedy.
This movie, however, is probably not going to make a lot of money.
Selma Duckler