We Have a Pope (2012)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on April 16, 2012 @ tonymacklin.net.

Although We Have a Pope is a heady concoction, it may not have mass appeal.

It is part romp, part pratfall, part hymn. It's difficult to get a grasp on the sensibility of We Have a Pope. Where is it going, and how is it going to get there?

Is it a spoof? A farce? A satire? The first time we see the main character Cardinal Melville (Michel Piccoli), it looks like he might be Mel Brooks.

We Have a Pope, in Italian with English subtitles, is the story of Melville, a 90-1 longshot choice to be the next pope. He is the surprise selection, but bolts dismayed by the enormity of the new responsibility, before he is seen by or introduced to the public.

Melville thinks the conclave has the wrong Peter Principle. He cries, "Help me. I can't do this." He hides behind a closed door, while throngs wait, and curtains flutter.

The identity of the chosen pontiff remains a mystery. The media swarms to find out what's happening, A pundit on tv says, "I'm totally confused."

So too is Melville. An atheistic psychoanalyst (Nanni Moretti) is brought in to try to treat him, and his estranged wife (Margherita Buy), also a psychiatrist, later meets with Melville.

She asks him, "What do you do?"

"I'm an actor," he answers.

On another trip to see her, Melville escapes. He wanders the streets of Rome, mingles with people singing, rides with others, gets a hotel room, and meets a theater troupe who are putting on a production of Chekov's The Seagull. He's away for a symbolic three days.

What is going to be the destination of Melville's journey?

Although We Have a Pope has some wafer-thin characterization, it is blessed with a memorable performance by Michel Piccoli [who was 85 at the time] as the bewildered, overwhelmed French cleric. Melville appears mild and gentle, but he has angry outbursts of frustration. He is a lost soul.

Moretti, who co-scripted as well as directed, portrays the at times nutty psychoanalyst - there may be a dollop of Jerry Lewis in his performance.

Jerzy Stuhr is effective as the hopeful Vatican spokesman.

Other characters - such as a mad actor and a Swiss Guard - add to the erratic quality of the film. The Swiss Guard stays in the pope's quarters rustling the curtains occasionally, giving the appearance of the wizard behind the curtain.

When the psychoanalyst arranges "international volleyball" games between the old men in the Vatican, it's silliness.

Another silly moment is as the first vote for pope is taken, we hear a plaintive chorus of "not me" from the silent old men. But the scenes often are more symbolic than they seem on the surface.

Moretti's direction at times seems as random as Melville's journey. But he is grandly aided by the production design of Paola Bizzarri, whose recreations of the Sistine Chapel and other Vatican environs give a sense of authenticity to the proceedings.

Moretti is certainly relating religion to games and theater. Religion is theater for the soul. But some men can't be more than bit players. Tradition sometimes dotters. Times are changing.

We Have a Pope is a film of the triumph of human fallibility over Papal infallibility. Religion is a waiting game.

We Have a Pope could be titled Waiting for Pietro.

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