The process of selecting the next pope is not the raw material of a traditional thriller. And while “Conclave” is packed with political intrigue, Edward Berger’s adaptation of Robert Harris’ 2016 book by the same name doesn’t indulge in conspiracies or the underlying fear of violence that are hallmarks of the paranoid 1970s political thrillers the director is emulating with this film.
While Berger was on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast he discussed the films of director Alan Pakula, like “Parallex View” and “All the President’s Men,” and how he used various cinemtic tools to make his story of a conclave of cardinals feel like a Paranoid ‘70s thriller.
Creeping Inside Cardinal Lawrence’s Brain
Until a new pope is selected, the pressures of administering the conclave’s proceedings fall on one man, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who has been experiencing religous doubt — we learn he even unsuccessfully attempted to step down from his position prior to the pope’s death.
“He doesn’t know if it’s the right thing, if he’s the right person, if he should be there, if he should be somewhere else,” said Berger. “I think a lot of people can identify with that feeling, doubt, ‘Sould I do something else?’ So [Ralph’s character] is what made me flock to this project.”
As serious questions about leading candidates are raised and fractions start to form, there’s word of unrest right outside Vatican City. How to experience this mounting pressure through Fiennes’ character became a guiding principle of how Berger created his compositions and shot list.
“Ralph is going through this right now, and how do I represent that? How do I make you feel what he feels?,” said Berger describing his shot listing process. “The Catholic church is based on rituals, so it means you do the same thing over and over again, and that’s why I storyboarded it to make sure that we always have a different idea for each scene depending on Ralph’s progression of how he feels.”
Cardinal Lawrence is in almost every scene of “Conclave,” and Berger wanted each to be seen and heard from his point of view. Even when coverage was of the other actors in the ensemble, shots were designed based on Lawrence’s emotional point of view. This was particularly important during the rather static and silent process of the cardinals six voting scenes.
“When I shot these scenes, every actor maybe had one close up, or one mid shot, depending, Ralph had probably five different angles,” said Berger. “Depending on who he was looking at, the camera had to go in a different position. Depending how he was feeling, it had to be behind him or above him. I basically shot every angle on him for specific moments, knowing I’m going to need that to creep inside his brain.”
Edits So Sharp They Hurt
The process of electing a new pope is anti-thriller: a repetitive ritual that is not particularly dynamic nor cinematic — there are only so many film 120 cardinals voting, and voting again until achieving the two-thirds majority is a rather stationary process.
“What’s different in this film is maybe that it’s so static, people are basically sitting and talking,” said Berger. “And so why move the camera so much?”
Part of Berger’s careful storyboarding was so he could be precise in editing — telling IndieWire he liked it when edits are so razor sharp they almost hurt — to drive the film forward, and pull the viewer in.
“The person I learned this from [the most] is Pakula. If you watch ‘Parallax View’ you have Warren Beatty, one of the biggest stars in the 70s, producer on the movie, he is with his back to the camera in the dark, for two minutes,” said Berger. “And then on a very specific line or reaction, he would cut around to [a] close or mid-shot, that cut has such a profound effect — I listen and I lean in and I go, ‘Oh, what’s Warren Beatty thinking? What’s he feeling? What’s the effect on him?’ And it’s so good, it makes you lean in more.”
Berger pointed to “Blitz” director Steve McQueen as another director who dissects with his camera (“he has a gaze that is razor sharp and analytical”). Berger said for all the dialogue in “Conclave,” it was important to avoid shot-reverse-shot shooting coverage and editing patterns, but like McQueen and Pakula, find and build toward moments where an edit to (or off) Fiennes cuts deepest in its impact on the audience.
Counter-Score
Composer Volker Bertelmann’s score is critical to signaling to the audience how to engage with the story on screen. “Conclave” is Berger and Bertelmann’s fifth film together, a collaboration that’s throughline is rooted in the concept of counter-score, which became key to converting its church-setting into a thriller.
“Get me a score there that feels different, that’s unexpected, that’s not ecclesiastic,” said Berger of the score. “I’m more scoring what’s inside [Lawrence’s] stomach than what I see on the image, and if that has little to do with the location and the image, all the better.”
Bertelmann’s score propels the story forward, often giving scenes a sense of movement and velocity by tapping into the swirling emotions underneath static scenes of well-mannered cardinals in the formal historical setting.
“We put music in the very beginning, that was a very late addition because I suddenly I thought we’re not telling the audience how to engage with this movie yet,” said Berger.
Creating the Space of Paranoid Sequestered
The “Conclave” production always knew it would need to recreate the Sistine Chapel on a soudstage — the famed dome, painted by Michaelango, where the cardinals vote could not be cheated at another location. Unlike the Sistine Chapel, the rather ordinary Casa Santa Marta, the living quarters where the cardinals are sequestered, is cold, modern, and ordinary — something one would think could be recreated on location. But building the interior set on a soundstage would be crucial to Berger creating his thriller.
“I couldn’t find these hallways, I wanted a really long [cooridors],” said Berger. “The movie is called ‘Conclave,’ it’s about being shut in, so you need a hallway and rooms that feel shut in.”
The cardinals’ dormitory-like setting needed long, narrow spaces, that lacked window or natural light, and supplied a space that when photographed created a specific feeling. Berger said at the end of the film, once the new pope has been chosen and the shuttered windows open, he wanted there to be a sense of liberation. The film would be a success if, like Lawrence, the audience felt the same sense of relief and liberation that comes with breathing fresh air.
“Ralph goes through this journey of being locked in, feeling claustrophobic,” said Berger. “For me, it’s a paranoid conspiracy thriller from the 70s. It’s like an Alan Pakula movie, like ‘Parallax View,’ that was the kind of film I wanted to make.”
The Walls Have Ears
Berger also utilized sound to access Fiennes’ character’s paranoia. “He’s locked away, he feels under pressure, he’s being watched, the walls have ears,” said Berger, who accomplished this by capturing the sense of listening in an enclosed space. “It gets really quiet, and you hear the hum of the neon lights.”
Like the characters, Berger’s camera stays inside the confines of the conclave. The world outside, from which the audience and cardinals are sequestered, is yet an additional source of pressure on Cardinal Lawerence. Not only are there reports of unrest, but there’s also the ticking clock of an enormous crowd gathered outside the gates in eager anticipation as the weight of the Catholic Church’s future rides on his shoulders.
“We played a lot with sound, helicopters flying over, off camera,” said Berger. “You’re trying to get into Ralph’s head, he’s not going to see the helicopters, the cheer of the crowd, the feeling of the hundreds of thousands in San Peter’s Square who go there to wait to see, ‘Who’s going to be the next guy?’”
Plot Twists Grounded in Infallibility
One of Berger’s concerns is the audience would take the historical Vatican setting and put the characters, who are the religion’s highest-ranking leaders, on a pedestal. Part of what keeps the audience at the edge of their seat is the film’s twists and turns, which are rooted in characters’ infallibility — each cardinal being considered for the top job has something in their past they’ll unsuccessfully try to hide under the scrutiny of the selection process. Which is why right in the film’s opening, when the pope dies, Berger makes sure we see that even the Holy Father himself is just flesh and bone, undercutting the gravity of the moment by training his camera on the process of tending to a dead body and difficulty of removing his jewelry.
“He’s had this ring on probably for 10-15 years, he’s probably gotten fatter and older,” said Berger. “They’re struggling, they want to be so reverent with this guy, but they’re still struggling to get that bloody ring off. I think that’s just interesting to me to make him human.”
Early in the film, Berger wanted the audience to see those working and living in the Vatican, despite where the ancient robes, had cell phones and engaged in that same mundane aspects of modern life as those in the audience. He also emphasized how the deceased pope was handled by paramedics, zipped up into a plastic body bag, like any other dead body.
“I like when all this archaic architecture, suddenly there’s plastic, the modernity that they’re just part of our lives and there’s no reason to put them on a pedestal,” said Berger. “They’re humans that are just make with all their mortal errors.”
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