Edward Berger’s Conclave is a Master Class in Acting, Writing and Directing

“No one who ever follows their conscience ever does wrong. The consequences may not turn out as we intended; it may prove that we made a mistake. But that is not the same as being wrong.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

Power corrupts in Edward Berger’s masterful new film, Conclave, which just had its World Premiere at the 51st Annual Telluride Film Festival. I expect most of those sitting in the Herzog theater imagined themselves on the side of moral good while comfortably pointing their fingers at the other side – those bad people over there. But to do so would be to miss the entire point of the film.

Lately, I’ve felt despair over the state of storytelling in most films, or rather the lack of. I started to wonder if we’ve just evolved out of it and that there will never be such a thing as a great story that is well-told.

Well, I’m happy to report that the art of storytelling is alive and kicking in Conclave. Berger and his screenwriter Peter Straughan (who adapted the Robert Harris novel) have taken what might have been a dull tale of replacing the Pope and turned it into a funny, thrilling, entertaining film from minute one.

Ralph Fiennes gives the performance of his career as Cardinal Lawrence, who is tasked with leading the “conclave” to find the new Pope after the death of the most recent one. No one who wants to be the Pope should be the Pope, so the saying goes. Every Cardinal is accused of wanting it too badly, driven by ego and ambition. Each of them suspects the others of having too much ambition and not enough of the pure stuff to lead the Church and the world through times of strife.

Author Robert Harris wrote the novel for Conclave in 2016. So many of the same conflicts that revolved around the populist uprisings in the UK with Boris Johnson and here with Donald Trump exist today and are, in fact, intensifying. Politics, however, should be different from religion, and this is really the beating heart of Conclave. The Church has always been the seat of power and politics, of course, and it still is.

But the point of the film is to distinguish between the truer and higher purpose of the Church and the politics that can corrupt any institution. This isn’t as simple as the Liberals beating back the Conservatives on immigration. It will be interpreted that way but that’s too simplistic of a read and certainly different from what Harris or screenwriter Straughan had in mind. Potshots are taken at “both sides” as this is more about the nature of human beings than it is about any political party.

But as with any great work of art, people will see what they want to see. The film, if it’s considered at all outside the insular world of the Oscar race, will likely be the subject of both complaints and praise for the way it chooses to end the story. But I found it to be quite moving at the end, something that was as inevitable as it was organic to the story. If they held true to the process and to their faith it could not have ended any other way.

Conclave points out the hypocrisy of people who pretend to be morally on the right side but fall into the same kind of corruption in their craven quest for power. The point of the film is not to divide but to unite and somehow find a compromise with a changing world. But I’m sure someone who is more familiar with Catholicism might explain it better than I could.

Conclave showed me that there are still signs of life out there and that brilliant directors are still making movies. It’s as much a showcase for Fiennes, who is filmed in close-up for much of the film, as it is for Berger. Even if there are things I might not entirely agree with, I loved every minute. It reminded me of movies we used to see all of the time, but Hollywood stopped making.

Every performance hits it out of the park, especially those of Isabella Rossellini, Stanley Tucci, Carlos Diehz, and Lucian Msamati. But the film belongs to Fiennes, who will be among the frontrunners for Best Actor.

The cinematography by Stéphane Fontaine is like a painting, with deep reds, geometric shapes filling the frame, and all of that Vatican light spilling through. The production design, costumes and original score will be among the best of the year.

There are still many films to see, but Conclave seems strong in Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor/Actress, Editing, Cinematography, Score, Production Design, and Costumes. In other words, a strong Oscar contender all around.