Netflix has given us a glimpse at The Two Popes starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce.
Inspired by true events. The Two Popes tells the intimate story of one of the most dramatic transitions of power in the last 2,000 years.
Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins). Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.
Behind Vatican walls, a struggle commences between both tradition and progress, guilt and forgiveness, as these two very different men confront elements from their pasts in order to find common ground and forge a future for a billion followers around the world.
The Two Popes is released in selected theaters on November 27 and released on Netflix on December 20.
my big question regarding this film…
will they acknowledge the “special friendship” between Reitzinger and his *really close* secretary, Bishop Georg, his life-in partner?
… because I am afraid they will miss the chance for an incisive look on double standards. I still think it is no coincidence that Benedict XVI resigned RIGHT AFTER Nani Moretti’s excellent “Habemus Papam” was shot and probably screened for the Vatican, and also that it is no coincidence (if reports were correct) Benedict XVI took Bishop Georg with him for his personal secretary in his retirement…
My judgement on this film will be spinning around this, probably.
I’m afraid that because both men are still alive, and one still in office, the film will avoid anything even remotely controversial.
I agree, especially since this is the screenwriter of Darkest Hour, Bohemian Rhapsody and The Theory of Everything.
Interesting – pointing that out all three of his last screenplays won best leading actor Oscars… Does that set this up to be another middling, surface level film that generates a lot of buzz for the leading male performance? Because that seems to be his playbook by now (this is supposed to be read in a slightly negative tone despite the fact that he’s a New Zealander so I should be standing up for him because there are so few of us working in the industry on the world stage).
Yes, I noticed that too: he has middling screenplays based around a stunning, transformative lead acting performance of a globally renowned character. However, I think this one differs from the other three in that Pryce and Hopkins will not have to undergo radical transformations to play their roles: They just need to put on impressive robes. Their characters, and especially the voices of their characters, are not as well-known around the world.
That is true but maybe the large amount of costuming and putting on the mannerisms one would associate with a pope will be viewed as transformational by some. Regardless it does very much follow the all about the leading male actor (actors in this case) playbook that he’s been working from. Though I really don’t think this is doing much Oscar wise but we will see.
I think they will also avoid, Bergoglio’s controversial past with the Vileda dictatorship. I heard once a rumor that Bergoglio was the designed new Pope but a big branch of the Vatican were actually scared he would rise to power (because of that past and his personality) so they got in the last minute the agreement to have Reitzinger be the Pope (against his will) as kind of “career recognition”). About Reitzinger’s buzzed homosexuality, well, my late husband was from his hometown, Munich, and well, he seemed to be quite known, or so he told me.
Maybe so, but there will be no inkling of that in the film.
Yes, for some reason I started mispelling him. Probably because I forgot people in Spain started mocking him as “Ratzinger Z” in allusion to iconic anime which was extremely popular in Spain, “Mazinger Z”. Lol. My bad. I don’t edit my original posts so yours can make sense.
I have edited my post and removed that part, so you can edit both your posts if you want. If you do, then I can delete this post, too.
After Habemus papam, I honestly think no Pope films should be made for at least fifty years.
Off topic – Marriage Story is 96 on Metacritic after 8 reviews! Looking like a huge contender now.
I have read a couple of reviews from the Trades. This thing is for real. Looks like Driver and Johansson are major contenders, along with Baubauch’s direction and screenplay, and Picture now is a huge possibility. Throw in a couple of talked-about supporting performances (Dern, Liotta, etc.) and you have potentially 6-7 noms here. Reviews are glowing.
Off-topic about another Netflix release:
This is the first word from someone who seems to have seen The King. I pasted it from the BFI London Film Festival page. Major caveat: this should not be read as a review, since Tricia Tuttle is the director of the BFI and has the job of promoting the festival and all the films in it. This should be read as a promo piece, and treated with a hefty dose of scepticism. Anyway, here it is:
The startling transformation undertaken by Hal in Shakespeare’s Henriad series, from the fun-loving prince into the all-powerful monarch, is one of literature’s most acute character studies. Here, David Michôd (Animal Kingdom, The Rover) and co-screenwriter and star Joel Edgerton adapt those texts to explore how a reluctant monarch took the crown, and found himself embroiled in the very same wars he despised his father for. It finds Chalamet displaying his range and versatility, and he perfectly captures both the charm and recklessness of the youthful prince and the steely authoritarianism of a king in the making. Edgerton, as gifted and versatile an actor as he is a writer, makes a particularly soulful, tragic-heroic John Falstaff. Bloody, potent, rousing, this is a full-bodied adaptation of Shakespeare’s text, with David Michôd again collaborating with cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, who is as much at home photographing the intimacy of a rare trusted confidence in a royal court of vipers as he is depicting the awesome scale of a bruising grand battle. Supporting cast are excellent all around, not least Lily-Rose Depp as Catherine, future Queen of England, Ben Mendelsohn as Henry IV and Robert Pattinson as a particularly spicy Dauphin, heir to the French throne.
Tricia Tuttle
Ah yes, I’d say there were two big talents there (Hopkins/Pryce).