Storyline:

• When the Pope dies, it falls to the Dean of the College of Cardinals, “Cardinal Lawrence” (Ralph Fiennes) to organise the conclave that will elect his successor.

• His own personal preference is for the liberal “Bellini” (Stanley Tucci) but there is also plenty of support elsewhere.

• “Adeyami” (Lucian Msamati) could be the first pontiff from Africa; “Tremblay” (John Lithgow) is an ambitious American and “Tedesco” (Sergio Castellitto) the formidable and ultra-conservative candidate.

• As they are all assembling, a surprise arrives in the form of the hitherto unknown Cardinal Archbishop of Kabul (Carlos Diehz) and so now, the red tables are set for a process that shines a light on the flawed humanity of many of the men gathered together.

• For all of their ostensibly benign spirituality, these are politicians and even “Lawrence” finds his faith, his patience and his loyalties tested as he becomes aware of a conspiracy.

• Or is it a series of conspiracies? Is he being manipulated? Is it all just a smokescreen?

• With the voting showing little sign of breaking a deadlock amongst the 108 men sequestered in the room, he begins to fear that the outside world might conclude that the church is divided.

• That very same outside world, meantime, is suffering from a spate of terrorist attacks that even the ancient walls of the Vatican cannot shield them from, as the old traditions battle for supremacy with the more modern ones.

   

  Director

  • Edward Berger

  Writers

   

  • Peter Straughan

    screenplay

  • Robert Harris

  Top Cast24

   

   

  

   

  Ralph Fiennes

  • Lawrence

  

   

  Jacek Koman

  • Wozniak

  

   

  Lucian Msamati

  • Adeyemi

  

   

  Stanley Tucci

  • Bellini

  

   

  John Lithgow

  • Tremblay

   

   

  Bruno Novelli

  • Dead Pope

  

   

  Thomas Loibl

  • Mandorff

  

   

  Brían F. O’Byrne

  • O’Malley

  

   

  Isabella Rossellini

  • Sister Agnes

  

   

  Rony Kramer

  • Mendoza

  

   

  Sergio Castellitto

  • Tedesco

   

   

  Valerio Da Silva

  • Father Haas

  

   

  Carlos Diehz

  • Benitez

  

   

  Joseph Mydell

  • Nakitanda

  

   

  Vincenzo Failla

  • Guttoso

  

   

  Garrick Hagon

  • Krasinski

  

   

  Merab Ninidze

  • Sabbadin

   

   

  Madhav Sharma

  • Land

• Review 

  Written by CinemaSerf on 24 October 2022

  Told by way of a retrospective, this is a stylish and informative – if not always very entertaining – biopic on the legendary film star. He is discussing his autobiography and as he meanders down memory lane, we accompany him from his life in Edwardian London through his journey to the USA where he found fame with Keystone Studios and developed the legendary “Tramp” persona that resonated so well with an increasingly poverty-stricken populace. Robert Downey Jnr is effective in the title role, conveying much of the quirkiness – and selfishness – of this character. Geraldine Chaplin (his real life daughter) delivers a poignantly strong, if sparing, contribution and the attention to detail with costumes and sets is special. Thing is, although it must have been hard for Richard Attenborough to condense eighty-eight years of this man’s hugely interesting life into one film, those moments he has selected tend a little towards the more salacious; those less demonstrative of his creative genius. The scenes at the start when an opportunity was there to illustrate to us how his workhouse upbringing instilled the ethic that was to drive him all his life – we skip through them all too superficially (though maybe that’s because there was no role for Downey?). The political emphasis on the McCarthy witch-hunts is interesting, and the general FBI conspiracy elements are developed well, but for me this is much less about the man than it is about the myth and that’s a shame. The supporting cast deliver well enough – John Thaw as his discoverer “Karno” and Dan Aykroyd strong amongst them, and to be fair it does rather fly by for almost 2½ hours. I can’t help but admire the director’s intention to encapsulate such a lot into such a little amount of screen time, but perhaps it was just never really possible in the first place – if justice were ever to be done to this flawed, enigmatic, charming, ruthless and funny man.