Conclave: Eyes Wide Shut
Conclave, the featured film among this year’s Oscar nominees, is the subsequent screen adaptation by Edward Berger, who gained fame with his Academy Award–winning film “All Quiet on the Western Front” and had previously directed several television series.
Conclave deals with election to the Roman pontificate and is praised for various aspects as a chamber drama. The acting performance ranks first among these aspects. There is no denying that the film’s success has been significantly impacted by Ralph Fiennes’ superb performance as Thomas Lawrence, the protagonist. Successful film is inseparable from its entirety. To extract a component from it and to attribute success to that are like pulling a loop from a carpet.
Intrigue and internal passions may remain invisible within the rules of electoral procedure and the literally exhausting efforts such as vote accumulating. In that case, the viewer fatigued by a lack of dynamism will withdraw their attention from the film.
However, in Conclave, both the acting performance and the camera’s sensitive yet detached approach, the muted color palette, and precisely chosen distances with respect to the subject, object, and focus (it is such a distance allows the viewer to immerse in the intrigue and conflict, as well as simultaneously to feel the ridiculousness and vanity underlying the severity of this election effort through the director’s occasional reminding nuance “third eye”) draw the viewer closer to the core of story and get them more intimate to the director’s vision.
From the opening scene, the authors introduce us the protagonist – a man with a briefcase in hand stepping through a dark tunnel flickering with car headlights at intervals.
The dark tunnel indicates the hiddenness both in the ideological spectrum and substratum of the film. Conclave is the meeting of cardinals held to elect a new pope after the death or resignation of the recent pope for whatever reason. But literally, it means a locked or enclosed room in Latin (Deep note – the word “conclave” is derived from two Latin words: “cum clave” (cum = with, clav[is] = key) meaning literally “with key” referring to the fact that the Cardinals are locked into seclusion in order to elect the new Roman pope.) It is public knowledge that the election to pontificate is held under severely secluded circumstance and we will obviously see it in the film.
The opening frame (tunnel-enclosed room, space) emphasizes one of the key aspects in the film’s ideological stratum. Additionally, the image depicts the protagonist’s journey from his internal turmoil while bearing the responsibility of a duty by clutching the briefcase. The actor, Ralph Fiennes, consistently and skillfully develops the storyline throughout the film – Actually, witness how two various matters (Performance of a measured duty despite inner emotional upheaval) integrate or combine as to manage determinedly such a strict issue like a Conclave while being plagued with indecision or hesitation, remembering the late pope eyes in tears. This serves to the ideological stratum or layer – the film led us not only a search for new pope but also search for value that combine various matters. Substantially, we see how he integrates two different poles (emotional and moral turbulence along with executing a composed duty), managing a responsibility as grave as a conclave with cool restraint when he is plagued by inner turmoil and affectionately remembers his deceased pope through tears streaming. It also serves the storyline of the film—the story does not drive us on a quest for a new pope, but rather on a search for a value that unites opposing views.
The sense is that the story does not stress the cardinals’ forgetting of spiritual awareness. In the meantime, the cardinals make efforts to accumulate the divided votes during the conclave. In contrast, the conclave, as a procedural entity, highlights a stringent protocol and rigorous regulations. These scenes are portrayed applying the smooth camera pans contrary to abrupt montage shots: Windows are closed, providing that no light falls inside; the cardinals smoke their last cigarettes outdoors and gather the butts; multiple shots show the door being closed repeatedly, even sealed — the church elects its pope after closing its doors to the world. It happens both in the literal and figurative sense. The authors relate the reason behind the church’s degradation with issues mentioned above. The window to the whole world is closing.
The election, which takes place twice a day, may last several days until one of the candidates provides 72 quorum votes. The world will receive news of the new pope’s election through white smoke curling from the church chimney. Because indoor and outdoor are disconnected.
This is reframed by the director as a metaphor for the spiritual degradation people have experienced in modern times. In the film, it is stressed that losing connection between the inner and outer worlds leads to devastation. It happened when Cardinal Lawrence, who repeatedly declared from the start that he did not desire to become pope, cast his vote and simply dropped the ballot into the traditional iron box. But at this time, if the impact of the explosion near the church wall had not shattered the window, collapsed inward, brought a flood of light and pierced the enclosed space.
The act of terror serves as a bridge between the interior and exterior – the spiritual and physical world. Lawrence’s opinion in the speech of the first day of the conclave penetrates the minds of the cardinals. Cardinal Thomas Laurence—the Dean, the organizer and presider of the conclave—states: “Certainty means our end.” Faith and doubt runs side by side. What is the point of faith if there is no doubt? Even Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying on the cross “My God, why have You forsaken me?” Even he doubted.” By saying “even he doubted,” he invites the cardinals to sensing, thinking, and listening to their own inner hesitations. “Rational thought is assuredness. Assuredness leads to moral blindness” says Lawrence in somehow. During the conclave, the Church’s authority and its history was suspended over the dean-cardinal like a sword. The groups representing various factions in the election, such as nationalists, radicals, liberals, and others, refer to precisely this – the past and influence.
Cardinal Lawrence desires to fullfil his duties deservedly; he must adhere to rules, if required, bring to light murky issues in the candidate cardinals’ lives. In addition, this situation poses an ethical dilemma to him. He, in his term, joins factions not to lose votes. He conducts negotiations with the cardinals to unify the votes. Even when he requests an unfamiliar archbishop from Kabul to cast the votes he assigned to Cardinal Aldo, he is confused by unexpected reaction: the archbishop indicates that he will vote for Cardinal Lawrence not because of a request, but due to his belief in his worthiness to become pope
The main characters of the film – cardinal Aldo (Stanley Tucci) and Cardinal Lawrence make a choice between bad and worse alternatives. Indeed, Lawrence, who is unwilling to accept the pontificate but has conceived himself as pope, should be the most qualified candidate in the conclave. Cardinal Aldo, who holds a liberal perspective, promotes the conservative Goffredo Tedesco due to his perceived strength in the ongoing struggle against the cardinal at the opposing side. However, Aldo believes Tedesco will ultimately be unable to triumph over Cardinal Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow) – the focus is on accumulating the divided votes for one candidate. However, right at this moment, Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz), secretly appointed bishop of Kabul by the pope, becomes the favorite with one impactful speech.
Within particular period, we follow Lawrence’s growing awareness of his moral degradation. He repeatedly (Even when, entangled in factional politics, he casts a vote for himself in the cause of the pontificate…) lifts his eyes to the vaulted ceiling of the church. The ceiling is adorned with one of the most famous works of the Renaissance: Michelangelo’s monumental fresco, The Last Judgment. These frescoes highlight both the film’s initial ideological spectrum, indicating a humanist orientation, and reflect the protagonist’s process of self-awareness.
Lawrence turns his gaze to the upper-right corner of the fresco, where Christ and the Virgin Mary are painted: The trumpets of the Judgement Day sounds, demons drag the sinners into hell. We realize Laurence identified with himself in this image long before we could. The Cardinal senses that, by involving him in the fight for power, he is drawn to hell. Lawrence realizes that the frescoes within the chapel have aimed directly at him.
In response to the cardinals, some of whom (Tedesco condemns relativism as the root of all evils, sufferings and rejects tolerance toward Islam) – seeks to take the occasion of it by interpreting the alleged radical Islamist terror attack near the church from the point of their mindset, Vincent is elected as the pope after his stirring and heartfelt speech that touches on war, humanity, the fate of the world, and the hope of the future. With time still on his side, before the white smoke rises from the chimney, Vincent reveals his secret to Cardinal Lawrence. It becomes evident that Vincent represents opposing pole— that is, he was, in fact, both female and male. He decided not to remove his excess genital organs from his body and to live as God created him, without altering his nature. Lawrence regards this as a sign, much like devout Christians who await miracles and omens, and supports the idea that the church should adopt exactly this unifying path. The positive aspect that the director’s gentle and restrained approach avoids evoking pathos. It is possible to regard the film as a camera movie on the courses of events during the conclave. What is the most remarkable is how visual and verbal signs, sensitive camera movement, acting capabilities, in some way, penetrate the viewers. While tracking Cardinal Lawrence’s spiritual path alongside the conclave’s struggle, they pay sufficient attention to the inner contradictions and consequently to the profound human-philosophical conflicts aroused during the conclave’s proceedings. If the Pope reigns the Christian world, does it mean he also rules its spiritual realm? Or can each person truly govern his own spiritual world?
The film Conclave depicts a specific local occurrence where religious and ideological polarizations or differences intersect. But this film is also focused on withdrawing from the world and his passion. This is about the church’s conservative past and its current state. By the way, the celebrated Renaissance fresco repeatedly featured in the film was also subjected to censorship by the church conservatives. For instance, throughout Carafa’s service as Cardinal, Pope Paul IV (the first pope inquisitor) accused Michelangelo of immorality and indecency. This is because, he had obviously pained without hiding the genital organs of the naked body in the foremost Christian church. As a result, some parts of the naked bodies were completed, in other sense, veiled by Michelangelo’s apprentice. Reportedly, Michelangelo responded to the Pope as follows: “To veil, cover nudity is easy, let the Pope bring the world back to a state of honor.”
The film’s protagonist Cardinal Lawrence desires the church to serve as a cohesive entity through artistic expression. The Renaissance artist we mentioned eventually, sooner or later, had embraced all of us within his work. Even in one version, the pope’s aide depicted Cesena, who led the campaign “to devastate the fresco with indecent scenes”, as the long-eared ruler of the afterlife (the dead) realm, King Minos (in the form of the devil figure, as portrayed in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy). According to this viewpoint, art is the ultimate goal and value that the church should strive for.
The film does not emphasize it particularly, but it acts as subtext for the idea. Edward Bergson’s Conclave is so praiseworthy that he was capable to transform the conclave from a localized event into a film about a profound human and moral crisis, and to present it as material for the idea and life without tending any ideological factions (some may mistakenly consider it ideologically closer to liberalism. Conclave represents cautious and brave touch on the issue. He appeals to the kind of tolerance through which Europe once illuminated the world through the voice of an archbishop from Kabul, rather than from Europe.
Aliya Dadashova