'Conclave' director says controversial scenes in film about papal election 'not overthrow of church'

EXCLUSIVE – “Conclave” director Edward Berger's new film about the secret papal election process could bring surprises and shocks to traditional Catholics.

Featuring a star-studded cast including Ralph Fiennes as the dean of the College of Cardinals, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Lucian Msamati, Focus Features' “Conclave” is a fascinating, fictional, behind-the-scenes look at how cardinals come together (and sometimes conspire) to to elect a new pope, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Robert Harris. Isabella Rosellini also has a memorable role as Sister Agnes, who quietly observes the machinations of the cardinals throughout the film.

“And we see it at the beginning of the film: Stanley Tucci refers to a chess game, and I felt like this film is like a well-constructed architectural chess game with people vying for the top job – the throne is vacant and the People get.” “They're holding out their daggers to take that throne,” director Edward Berger told Fox News Digital.

“It's automatically a very competitive situation and a very interesting and very exciting situation,” he continued. “In addition, the character of Ralph Fiennes offers a wonderfully exciting inner journey full of struggle and doubt that he tries to overcome. So it's a very complex script that always surprises you and has a lot of surprises and twists in store for the audience.”

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(Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Berger said he often sought the advice of religious advisers when preparing for filming, including Francesco Bonomo, who helped fill in the gaps to explain how people vote, what oaths are taken, what prayers are said, how to holding his hands and how you kneel among other things.

“And we tried to make this as accurate as possible,” Berger told Fox News Digital. “And whatever is unknown, we filled it with our reality, because after all, it’s a movie.”

“We scouted and filmed in a lot of locations in Rome and that influences the filming every day,” he added. “You look out the window and you see priests going to work with briefcases, you see nuns going to work and you realize, 'Oh, they're all just people going to work, people going to work, and that's part of it in addition.' their daily lives.'”

The film often humanizes the cardinals by showing them smoking on their cell phones, bursting into tears, etc., and vying for the papacy after the death of the youngest pope.

“And so we try to portray the Vatican as a human being,” Berger said. “These are people with problems, with doubts, with questions, with insecurities, with vices, with past sins and problems that they are trying to overcome. That's how we try to show it, simply as a human drama. In terms of.” According to our research, we spoke to many cardinals beforehand who gave us advice, but obviously at some point the doors of the conclave closed and no one would tell you what was going on.

Ralph Fiennes argues against trigger warnings in theater, saying audiences should be “shocked and concerned”.

For those who haven't read Harris' “Conclave,” the film's ending might come as a bit of a shock. Some Catholic bloggers have called the book “anti-Catholic” or used the word “woke” when they discovered how the papal election ultimately turns out and takes a progressive turn. Berger said the film was in no way intended to insult the church when asked how he thought traditional Catholics would react to the feature film.

“Well, we live in a world that has forgotten how to discuss, disagree and have proper discourse,” Berger told Fox News Digital, later adding: “I'm open to people's arguments and I understand “What they feel and how they feel.” to think about it and learn from it and possibly revise my ideas and encourage my own attitude to advance my own education.

“And this is not an overthrow of the church,” he said. “We portray people as people, everyone is human and everyone is equal. I know from a lot of cardinals and a lot of Catholics that I've spoken to in Europe that they've said they're incredibly excited about the film and would just go see the film and see it for what it is: a film . That's not necessarily the truth, but it's a version of a movie.

Pope Francis attends a mass on the Tasitolu esplanade in Dili, East Timor, on September 10, 2024. (Tiziana FABI / AFP) (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images))

Some Catholic reviews of the film, such as one from Angelus News, noted that the ultra-conservative Italian Cardinal Tedesco is one of several cardinals portrayed as a “villain.” In one scene he expresses his concern that there are too many Muslims in Europe and that the church is too tolerant of other religions.

Meanwhile, some priests are bluntly warning Catholics not to watch the film.

This film “is about undermining salvation, it's about mocking salvation, it's about discrediting the Holy Roman Catholic Church,” said Fr. Jonathan Meyer of All Saints Parish in Guilford, Indiana, said in a YouTube video message, with some commenters calling the film a “mockery” of the church.

But the film is a hit with mainstream critics and currently sits at 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The film's suspense factor and top performances make it an Oscar contender, they say.

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“Conclave” also addresses an important question: How do men behave when they are given power? The answer, as the characters' often murderous power plays suggest, is not admirable.

“It’s an extremely important decision,” Berger told Fox News Digital. “This position is extremely powerful – it is probably one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, positions in the world. This vacancy will create a power vacuum, and that power vacuum must be filled. With some people it will be like that.” Arouse ambition – these are deeply miserable men and one of them will be this powerful person, and not everyone is immune to ambition. Sometimes ambition brings out the darkest sides of things, and sometimes ambition can be fruitful and positive, turning it into a human drama equal to any vacant position in the world.

As in reality, the film shows how the cardinals' election of the next pope is signaled by white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.

With the US presidential election approaching, it was difficult to ignore the timing of the film's release.

Maryland Board of Elections poll workers walk past empty booths at a polling place in Annapolis, Maryland, during the Maryland state primary election on May 14, 2024. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

“When you make a film, you always want to take advantage of the time, be open to current events and want to make them a part of the film,” Berger said of the film's intriguing timing, calling his film a “political drama.”

“We've been developing this film for eight years, so there's certainly no intention and you can't plan for a film to be released this year. It's simply the truth. But it's the reality of what we do.” When reality is reflected in a film, it makes its time interesting, and I think it makes it interesting. Whether this film is set in the Vatican, in Washington, DC, or in a boardroom, I think it's a universal truth that happens everywhere: When a position is vacant and needs to be filled, that brings out different political agendas or different intentions , which are in conflict with each other, and that’s what we’re trying to show in the film.”

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As for his personal faith journey, Berger shared that he was raised Protestant but was always interested in other faiths and their rituals, especially the Catholic Church because it is “so mysterious and has so much mysticism surrounding it and so much, in. “a kind of drama, theatricality, and that lends itself to a film.”

Should the Catholic Church evolve?

“There would be no tradition, identity, history or culture, so it's a really important part of our cultures,” Berger replied to Fox News Digital. “Secondly, my personal opinion would be that I think it's always good to move with the times, that you don't have to be afraid to move with the times and open yourself up to different aspects of modernity, such as certainly a feminine one Presence.” would not be harmful to any organization.”

“Conclave” is in theaters now.