Review: Habemus Papam (2011)

by

06, April 2012Reviews

Cast: Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa
Director: Nanni Moretti
Country: Italy | France
Genre: Drama
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: Habemus Papam opens in select US cities on April 6th.

Red solemnity and collective anticipation accompanies the papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is elected by the College of Cardinals at the Vatican. It is a process of seclusion, with the cardinals not allowed contact with the outside world until a successor has been named and presented. This process is precisely the subject of Habemus papam (We Have A Pope), the latest film by Italian director/writer/actor Nanni Moretti; or rather, re-imagining this process according to Moretti’s own preoccupations of crisis and performance. For in the film, the one elected pope by the cardinals, Melville, unexpectedly falls into a panic and wavers about his appointment, then escapes the Vatican to think through things, thus prolonging the cardinals’ seclusion. The rest of the film wonderfully and comically explores the dichotomies of inside and outside and being and performance in a way unanticipated, through Melville’s situation as well as those of other supporting characters mobilised to help him. One should expect nothing less, especially when in an interview about Habemus papam, Moretti states emphatically, “It is a made-up story: my film is about my Vatican, my conclave, my cardinals.” The possessiveness of Moretti’s statement may be a bit off-putting, but after watching the film one will understand and be more appreciative of it. Not only does Moretti serve as director and co-writer of the film, he also plays one of the principal characters.

The rest of the film wonderfully and comically explores the dichotomies of inside and outside and being and performance in a way unanticipated

At a very superficial level, though in a way not demeaning to either film, Habemus papam is somewhat like a papal version of Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler). Of course, the themes, plot, and conclusion of an escaped royal figure-turned-flâneur in Roman Holiday is light years apart from those of an escaped spiritual figure-turned-flâneur in Habemus papam. The point of the escape plot, ultimately, is the tension between inside and outside, being secluded in one’s self/identity and being amongst the crowd bathed in anonymity, and then the drama in the pursuit of the escaped character. The first forty minutes of the film mostly take place inside the Vatican, with the cardinals voting and waiting and Melville (played by the superb French actor Michel Piccoli) not/coming to terms with what has just happened to him. Nevertheless, layers of inside/outside already push against each other here and help to create the film’s blend of drama and comedy: the conclave and the crowds outside the Vatican; Melville in his isolated, panicked state and the cardinals patiently waiting for Melville to address the crowds. A short while later, another layer of inside/outside and dose of comedy comes in when the spokesperson (Jerzy Stuhr) calls in a psychoanalyst (Moretti) to help Melville work through his feelings of refusal, nervousness, disappearing identity, and physical and psychological claustrophobia. As a result, the psychoanalyst becomes subject to seclusion as well.

The remainder of the film strikes a good balance between the cardinals’ day-to-day lives individually and collectively inside the Vatican and Melville’s wanderings around Rome as he tries to make sense of his feelings and reactions towards his appointment as the pope. Despite their different circumstances, in the process Melville and the cardinals are rendered ordinary, human, flawed, and thus funny, especially the latter. And in the case of the psychoanalyst’s role in this scenario, in a way Melville and the psychoanalyst trade places: Melville flees the Vatican, while the psychoanalyst enters it; Melville doubts his ability to lead as the pope and remembers falteringly his past that may unlock (psychoanalytically, of course) the crisis that he is going through, while the psychoanalyst is not only sure of what he believes or does not believe in but he also can express it candidly. Furthermore, the psychoanalyst inadvertently takes on the role of leader within the Vatican that Melville cannot readily accept; not in a spiritual capacity, of course, but as the organiser and arbiter of the volleyball tournament played by the cardinals as a way to pass the time in seclusion.

Despite their different circumstances, in the process Melville and the cardinals are rendered ordinary, human, flawed, and thus funny, especially the latter.

(Contingent) upon Melville’s disappearance from the Vatican, the idea of play and performance become very prominent. But multiple layers of play and performance occur throughout the film, even at the start, nicely infusing another thematic texture to the film and mixing playfulness with self-introspection: the red carpet-like procession of the cardinals for the election of the pope and the paparazzi that photograph them and even ask them questions, such as the comical, not-always-in-the-know reporter; the supervisor who loses Melville in the city and puts on an act of the pope being in his quarters for the cardinals’ sake; one of the Vatican’s serviceman posing as the pope’s silhouette in his quarters, a ruse organised by the supervisor; Melville’s theatre background and memories of his sister, brought out by his encounter with a theatre troupe rehearsing Chekhov’s The Seagull in a hotel and at the theatre; the volleyball tournament staged in part to keep up the “pope’s” spirits, the cardinals not cognizant of the supervisor’s ruse; and finally, the means by which the cardinals agree to take back Melville to the Vatican, that is, by invading the theatre that is hosting the production of The Seagull and that Melville is watching as an audience member.

Moretti thus constructs nothing less than the ambitious amalgam of psychoanalysis, religion, comedy, and performance, which works most of the time. What makes sure it works: the very spirited, flawless performance by Piccoli—speaking Italian marvelously—as Melville, the equally vivacious performance by Moretti as the psychoanalyst, and the expansive, ebullient supporting cast in the guise of the cardinals. Habemus Papam may end on a dour note but surely the push-and-pull journey of community and isolation, belonging and alienation, doubt and conviction, comedy and drama, being and performance, make of the film a notable, engaging look at an otherwise hidden phenomenon.

The film’s release on Good Friday in U.S. theatres is a kindly gesture, but the irony of it given the film’s conclusion of uncertainty and rejection is something that even the atheistic Moretti would appreciate.

78/100 ~ GOOD. Moretti thus constructs nothing less than the ambitious amalgam of psychoanalysis, religion, comedy, and performance, which works most of the time. What makes sure it works: the very spirited, flawless performance by Piccoli—speaking Italian marvelously—as Melville, the equally vivacious performance by Moretti as the psychoanalyst, and the expansive, ebullient supporting cast in the guise of the cardinals. Habemus Papam may end on a dour note but surely the push-and-pull journey of community and isolation, belonging and alienation, doubt and conviction, comedy and drama, being and performance, make of the film a notable, engaging look at an otherwise hidden phenomenon.

Rowena Santos Aquino
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Senior Film Critic. Recently obtained my doctoral degree in Cinema and Media studies at UCLA. Linguaphile and cinephile, and therefore multingual in my cinephilia. Asian cinemas, Spanish language filmmaking, Middle Eastern cinemas, and documentary film.