Ralph Fiennes in Conclave. (Focus features / courtesy collection Everett)
When the pope dies, the cardinals meet for a secret meeting – known as the Conclave – to select a new Pope. The process was represented in the film 2024, Conclavewho won an Oscar this year.
The film, with Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini, is based on the novel of the same name of Robert Harris of 2016, which examines what is happening when the cardinals of the whole world fly in the city of the Vatican to start voting for the next pope.
While the intrigue of the film is fictitious, how precise it was in the representation of the conclaves?
Conclave correctly Defines how cardinals are cut off from the outside world while they are talking to try to decide which should be elected the next pope. Until a majority of two thirds choose someone, the ballots are burned after each vote and the smoke said to the public if a pope has been elected or not.
While Casa Santa Marta, where the cardinals remain both in the film and in real life, is managed by nuns, Rossellini, who plays Sister Agnes, seems to have more activity and involvement in the conclave than what is normally authorized to anyone who is not a cardinal, reported NPR.
Vatican prayers are generally in Latin or Italian only, not in English and Spanish as shown in the film, Piotr H. Kosicki, associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, said the New York Times.
And, of course – no spoilers – but what is happening at the end of Conclave It is unlikely that it will happen in real life.
The “actor and production values were excellent, but the twists and turns were bizarre and incredible,” Tom Reese, a Jesuit priest and commentator of the church, told CNN.
