The missus and I had the in-laws over for dinner last night, to commiserate about, you know, Tuesday. And we also talked about this movie and it looks pretty good. Has anyone seen it? What’d you think?
We’re thinking of seeing it.
It had good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, so I saw it on the first weekend it came out. I’m now going to read the book to see what was changed or left out in the movie. All in all I thought it was a good movie, lead by an excellent cast. To avoid spoilers I will just say that parts of the plot, and in particular the ending, may strike some as unrealistic, but I don’t know how else they could have written the story.
Having been in the Vatican, my favorite parts were all the details and mechanics of how a new pope is chosen. For some reason that fascinated me. Keep in mind this is fiction, so how accurate it is is debatable. Only a relatively few people really know what happens behind those closed doors. Plus, conveniently everyone speaks English, although I don’t know if that’s the language everyone would be speaking during a papal conclave in Rome.
We’re seeing it tonight. We’re going with my in-laws and nephew. Looking forward to it.
One of the best of the year IMO! Really fun enjoyable film.
“I was helped by – he died, sadly, so I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying – the English Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.” After he sent Murphy-O’Connor a copy of the book, Harris says, “To my surprise he wrote me a fan letter about it saying, ‘This is exactly what a conclave is like. Your central cardinal is exactly as we cardinals would wish to be. And as for the ending, I told myself it was only a novel.’”
You should also watch The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), if you haven’t already seen it. Any other similar movies?
It was quite good. Yes the Dean of the College of Cardinals is a man of impeccable character who takes his responsibilities seriously. It was an intriguing film and quite enjoyable.
It was derided by one reviewer (don’t ask me who; it was years ago) as a “Let’s Visit the Vatican” documentary, but while it explains a lot about the conclave, it also has a compelling plot involving a peaceful solution to a potential war between the USSR and China. Well worth watching.
I have not seen Conclave, but I’m looking forward to seeing it.
It would be interesting to hear your thoughts about the details of a papal conclave in the Sistine Chapel. The details in the movie were interesting, but IANAE. If you do see Conclave, please share your impressions about how it compares to what you know. Thanks!
We also just saw this. Really enjoyed it. The cinematography with spectacular. I’m not the kind of movie buff who usually notices such things (I would normally think of it like a referee in sports, you only notice it when they do something wrong), but this was really good.
One random thought I had was:
What’s the Catholic church’s doctrine regarding intersex people in the priesthood? I believe they would not allow them to marry (as they are incapable of having children), but AFAIK there is no reason someone with male and female sexual organs couldn’t become a priest (and indeed pope)
I saw the movie the other day, now it’s available to stream. One question I had was what language is used in a meeting like this or otherwise in the Catholic Church? Do they converse with each other in Latin, or Italian or even English? Is every priest expected to learn Latin?
I assume based on the monologue by Tedesco on the subject in the movie, that prior to the Second Vatican Council, when they were expected to the say mass in Latin they would also converse in Latin, but since theymi started saying mass in the vernacular they would also converse in vernacular. Though that’s a fictional monologue by a character in a Hollywood movie so it’s probably not a good assumption 
But which vernacular would they converse in? The cardinals are, of course, from many countries, and have different first languages.
Is it like flying commercial airlines? Where all pilots and flight controllers speak English throughout the world?
The point he was making was they all divided by language and spoke thier own.
I’d guess their lingua franca was Italian as all the lay people in Vatican city speak that