Since Pope Francis’ death was announced on April 21, which took place a day after Easter at the age of 88, the film Conclave has returned to being on everyone’s mouth. Directed by the German director Edward Berger and written by the British screenwriter Peter Straughan starting from the novel of the same name by Robert Harris in 2016, he tells the preparations, the background and the internal struggles preceding the election of a new head of the church. In Italy he had been released in theaters in December 2024 and at the box office he immediately did well, recording a collection of more than 6 million euros.

However, a figure still not definitive, because many cinemas have returned to insert the film on the bill with international stars as Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci – also the Italian Isabella Rossellini and Sergio Castellitto. The occasion after all was cynically gluttonous, with the real conclave ready to start from May 7th.

An event that, following the funeral of the Pope who led Rome to welcome millions of faithful from all over the world, continues to arouse an interest that transcends the spiritual plan. The crossroads of political attentions, economic interests, and not least a phenomenon of costume is made.

A high-profile crowd-select

After all, the conclave, the real one, presents the ideal elements that make it the perfect topic of discussion of the contemporary. First of all, the denial of the gaze: we know that it is there, under the eyes of everything, but at the same time it is hidden under a blanket of tradition and ritual that feeds the increasingly terrain mystery of the faith.

And then it is substantiated by a sequence of intrigues and scandals from social relaunch (from the numbers of the cardinals who do not return to the same cardinals who drain the fridge bar) who counterbalance the specific weight of a role still crucial on the unstable geopolitical chessboard, as is that of the major and institutionalized spiritual guide of the planet.

Inevitable then that in a similar scenario a fictional work like Conclave, this time the film, tickles the palate. Present for rent or not on a bit all the streaming platforms as well as precisely in cinemas, Berger’s work is undoubtedly a high -profile ‘crowd pleaser’. That is, with its mix between the wit of elegant thriller and the sacred gravitas of the stages in which it is set, a film that rewards the viewer with the taste of the atmosphere and Wow effect.

In this regard, Variety reports that according to Luminate, a company that monitors the listening to streaming content, on the Monday following the disappearance of Pope Francis, the listenings of Conclave increased by 283%. The film generated about 1.8 million minutes of viewing on April 20; At the end of April 21, the figure had reached 6.9 million minutes.

It was not the only one. Another film set within the Walls of the Vatican, the original Netflix of 2019 the two popes, of Fernando Meirelles and focused on the relationship between the incoming Pope Bergoglio and the abdicate Ratzinger, also aroused a strong interest. His plays increased by 417% starting from Sunday, when he generated 290,000 minutes of viewing, to reach Monday, when he reached 1.5 million minutes.

For Conclave, in addition to the positive feedback of the public (the return to the world box office is around 120 million dollars, in the face of a budget of about 20), however, there was also that of Hollywood. In fact, he won a lot during the usual season of the prizes, which is substantially from November to March and which culminates with the Oscar evening (here we explained a bit how things work), where Straughhan won the prize to the best non -original screenplay. Helped, so to speak, in the last weeks of the race also by the coincidence that has seen him linked to the aggravation of the conditions of the Argentine Pope and his long hospitalization in February.

What’s true in conclave

Of course, a film with delicate themes like those of Conclave in the center is not that everyone can like it. For example, CNN points out that Bishop Robert Barron, founder of the Catholic Media Ministry Word on Fire and very followed on social networks, told his fools out of “to” get away from it as quickly as possible “. Barron described the work as an initiative that meets “practically every Wake requirement” and that transmits the message that the only way out for the Church is to embrace “the progressive words of diversity, inclusion and indifference to doctrine”.

It is true that the main plot twist of the story (which we will not reveal here) revolves around a drastic and itchy twist of the millenary principles of the Church. Just as the conflicts that cross the film challenge the clash between traditionalists and progressives, while the question around the position of women in the hierarchical structures of the religious institution is also approached.

Beyond the ideological positioning and philosophies of thought on the doctrine, he conclave, however, does his best to be the most realistic possible in the reconstruction of the dynamics at the center of the attack. Already for the drafting of the novel Harris made use of the collaboration of the deceased English cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who took part in the Conclavi of 2005 and 2013.

According to B. Kevin Brown, professor of religious studies at the Gonzaga University listened to in the Moviefact column of Polytifact, Conclave “does a fair job” in describing the procedures behind the elections of a new Pope. The Conclave takes place in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, as rebuilt in the film. Here the cardinal voters (who on this occasion will be 133 from 71 countries) vote by secret ballot, approach a large glass, recite a prayer and deposit the card.

Four ballots are held per day until a candidate gets a majority of two thirds. After each ballot, the cards are burned with chemicals that produce colored smoke to indicate if a pope has been elected: black in the negative case, white in the positive case. In the film, which meticulously describes all these steps, three days are used to elect a pope. A data in line with recent history; Brown says that the conclaves of the last 100 years have lasted three to four days.

The inconsistencies? For Brown they are to be traced in some scenography and customs: some Roman collars are “not entirely correct” and the mass celebrated before the conclave seems to have no altar. Always the teacher then notes that the character of Fiennes, the dean Lawrence, constantly violates the principle of imprisonment when he receives information from the outside world. In the opening of the Conclave to the cardinals, all electronic devices are seized – which in the film underlined.

In addition, a cardinal appointed “in pectore”, that is, in secret for reasons related to the personal security of the cardinal himself, could only participate in the conclave if his identity is officially revealed by the Pope before his death. Which instead in the film does not happen in the case of Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehez), admitted to the vote by Lawrence and crucial for the purposes of the film, but which according to the canonical law would be at that point to be considered fallen.