''We Have a Pope'' (original title: ''Habemus Papam'') is a 2011 Italian-French
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film directed by
Nanni Moretti
Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti (; born 19 August 1953) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.
His films have won accolades including a Palme d'Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for ''The Son's Room'', a Silver Bear at the ...
and starring
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
and Moretti. Its original title is Latin for "We have a pope", the phrase used upon the
announcement of a new pope. The story revolves around a cardinal who, against his wishes, is
elected Elected may refer to:
* "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973
* ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008
*The Elected, an American indie rock band
See also
*Election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...
pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
. A psychoanalyst is called in to help the pope overcome his panic.
The film premiered in Italy in April 2011 and played in competition at the
64th Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
On the death of the pope, the
conclave
A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church.
Co ...
meets in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. Early ballots end with black smoke, since none of the main candidates reaches the quorum. After several rounds of voting, Cardinal Melville is elected, though he had not previously been considered a frontrunner. After a moment of hesitation, he accepts his election and becomes pope immediately.
At the moment of the public announcement, with the faithful are gathered in
St. Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the pope, papal enclave and exclave, enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighbor ...
and the cardinal proto-deacon ready to announce the name of the new pope, the newly elected pope has a panic attack and fails to appear on the balcony.
The spokesman of the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
evades questions from the press and the curiosity of the outside world by reporting that the new pontiff felt the need to sequester himself in prayer and reflection before being introduced to the public, and by explaining that he will make his official appearance within a few hours. This does not happen.
In accordance with the laws of the Church, until the identity of the new pope is announced publicly, the ceremony of election is not over and no one in the conclave can leave the Vatican (In reality, the conclave ends the moment the pope assents to his election).
The
College of Cardinals
The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appoi ...
, deeply concerned by the crisis and the depression from which the new pope seems to be suffering, calls in the psychoanalyst Professor Brezzi (whose role is played by director Nanni Moretti). The cardinals react to the psychoanalyst with some suspicion, but still allow him to examine the new pope. Brezzi, in the presence of the cardinals, tries to initiate a psychotherapy session which, however, fails to reveal anything to explain the depression and helplessness that plague the pontiff.
Brezzi reveals that his ex-wife is also a psychoanalyst and the newly elected pope is taken secretly to see her. After meeting with her he escapes his minders and runs away during a walk. Unaware of his absence, the cardinals kill time by playing games, ranging from cards to an international volleyball tournament organized by Brezzi.
The spokesman makes everyone believe that the Pope is in his quarters in prayer, and eventually the cardinals find Melville and give him another chance to announce his acceptance. Melville comes out onto the balcony claiming "I am not the leader you need", asks the crowd to pray "for what he is about to do", and then retreats back into
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...
.
Cast
*
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
as Cardinal Melville/
The Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
*
Nanni Moretti
Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti (; born 19 August 1953) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.
His films have won accolades including a Palme d'Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for ''The Son's Room'', a Silver Bear at the ...
as the psychoanalyst
*
Jerzy Stuhr
Jerzy Oskar Stuhr (; born 18 April 1947) is a Polish film and theatre actor. He is one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish actors. He also works as a screenwriter, film director and drama professor. He served as the Rector of th ...
as spokesman
*
Massimo Dobrovic
Massimo Dobrovic is an Istrian Italian actor known from the show ''Euros of Hollywood
''Euros of Hollywood'' is an American reality documentary television series on Bravo that premiered on November 3, 2014. Bravo announced the series in Apri ...
as
Swiss Guard
The Pontifical Swiss Guard (also Papal Swiss Guard or simply Swiss Guard; la, Pontificia Cohors Helvetica; it, Guardia Svizzera Pontificia; german: Päpstliche Schweizergarde; french: Garde suisse pontificale; rm, Guardia svizra papala)
is ...
*
Renato Scarpa
Renato Scarpa (14 September 1939 – 30 December 2021) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 85 films from 1969 to 2019.
Scarpa died on 30 December 2021, at the age of 82.
Selected filmography
* '' St. Michael Had a Rooster'' (1972)
* '' ...
as Cardinal Gregori
*
Margherita Buy
Margherita Buy (born 15 January 1962) is an Italian actress. She is a seven-time David di Donatello Awards winner and seven-time Nastro d'argento winner.
Overview
After a long period of studying at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, she made her bre ...
as female psychoanalyst
*
Franco Graziosi
Franco Graziosi (10 July 1929 – 8 September 2021) was an Italian actor. Entering films in 1960, he made some 28 motion picture and television appearances between then and 2013. He appeared regularly in television mini-series throughout his car ...
as Cardinal Bollati
* Leonardo Della Bianca as boy
* Camilla Ridolfi as girl
*
Camillo Milli
Camillo Migliori, best known as Camillo Milli (1 August 1929 – 20 January 2022) was an Italian stage, film and television actor.
Life and career
Born in Milan, Milli formed under Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, where he deb ...
as Cardinal Pescardona
*
Roberto Nobile
Roberto Nobile (11 November 1947 – 30 July 2022) was an Italian actor.
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
1947 births
2022 deaths
Italian male film actors
Actors from Verona
Italian male television actors
20t ...
as Cardinal Cevasco
* Gianluca Gobbi as Swiss Guard
* Ulrich von Dobschütz as Cardinal Brummer
Production
''We Have a Pope'' was announced in May 2009 as a co-production between Sacher Film,
Rai Cinema
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terr ...
and the French company Le Pacte.
Fandango
Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has ...
joined as a co-producer later in the year. The production involved a budget of eight million euro.
French actor
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
was cast in the leading role after auditioning six scenes in Italian in August 2009. The character's name, Melville, was inspired by the French filmmaker
Jean-Pierre Melville
Jean-Pierre Melville (; born Jean-Pierre Grumbach; 20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973) was a French filmmaker and actor. Among his films are ''Le Silence de la mer'' (1949), ''Bob le flambeur'' (1956), '' Le Doulos'' (1962), ''Le Samouraï'' (196 ...
. Some of the minor characters were played by members of the production team, whom Moretti found suitable for the roles when working on the set.
Principal photography started 1 February 2010 and was finished by the end of May. Studio constructions at the
Cinecittà
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...
studios in Rome included replicas of the
Sala Regia and the
Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...
. Other scenes were shot in the
Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Farnese () or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance List of palaces in Italy#Rome, palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and cur ...
and
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...
, which otherwise house the French embassy and the
French Academy in Rome
The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy.
History
The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1 ...
, respectively.
Themes
Portrayal of the conclave proceedings
The film reveals the overwhelming reluctance of a pope-elect to assent to his election as Supreme Pontiff. Director Nanni Moretti explained his aim with the film at the press conference following the press screening in Rome: "I wanted to depict a fragile man, Cardinal Melville, who feels inadequate in the face of power and the role he's called to fill ... I think this feeling of inadequacy happens to all cardinals elected Pope, or at least that's what they say."
The procedure of
papal conclave
A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the Apostolic succession, apostolic successor of Saint ...
requires a two-thirds supermajority vote to elect a new pope.
[Benedict XVI (11 June 2007)]
De aliquibus mutationibus in normis de electione Romani Pontificis
(in Latin). ''Motu proprio
In law, ''motu proprio'' (Latin for "on his own impulse") describes an official act taken without a formal request from another party. Some jurisdictions use the term ''sua sponte'' for the same concept.
In Catholic canon law, it refers to a do ...
''. Vatican City: Vatican Publishing House. Then, when the Cardinal Dean asks the pope-elect if he accepts his election, the Pope-elect is free to decline, though typically Cardinals who intend to refuse their election explicitly state this to their colleagues before a two-thirds majority is reached. The Pope-elect immediately enters office and ends the conclave once he accepts his election. All ceremonies regarding his installation are purely ceremonial.
Release
![Michel Piccoli Cannes 2011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Michel_Piccoli_Cannes_2011.jpg)
The film was released in Italy on 15 April 2011 through 01 Distribution in collaboration with Sacher Distribuzione. It was launched on 460 screens.
With 1,298,524 euro in revenues during the first weekend, the film entered the Italian box-office chart as number two, behind the American film ''
Rio
Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil.
Rio or Río may also refer to:
Geography Brazil
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rio do Sul, a ...
'' which premiered simultaneously. ''We Have a Pope'' showed In Competition at the
2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition. South Ko ...
.
Reception
In France Les ''
Cahiers du cinéma
''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'' listed the film as the best picture of the year 2011.
Deborah Young of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called the film "a well-written, surprisingly mainstream comedy" and noted how it was less political than earlier works by Moretti, such as ''
The Mass Is Ended
''The Mass Is Ended'' ( it, La messa è finita) is a 1985 Italian comedy film, written, starring and directed by Nanni Moretti.
Plot
The young priest Father Giulio returns to Rome, his hometown, after a long pilgrimage. Don Giulio hopes to live pe ...
'' and ''
The Caiman
''The Caiman'' ( it, Il caimano, referring to the caiman) is a 2006 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Nanni Moretti and starring Silvio Orlando and Margherita Buy. Focusing on Silvio Berlusconi's vicissitudes, it was released just before t ...
'': "Here the storyteller overpowers the moralist in every sense. Not a hint of clerical sex scandals clouds the surreal image of frolicking white-haired Cardinals; the most critical line in the film suggests the Church needs a leader who will bring great change, but even that plays as an offhand remark." Young went on to compliment the production design and cinematography, and called Moretti "one of the most creative filmmakers working in Italy". However, Young wrote, "the finale is a let-down, leaving the feeling of an artist paralyzed by his own perfectionism and his desperate search for originality at all costs." The film has a 65% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
We Have a Pope, Rotten Tomatoes
/ref>
Reactions from the Roman Catholic community were mixed. Vatican correspondent Salvatore Izzo called for a boycott of the film in the newspaper ''Avvenire
''Avvenire'' (English: "Future") is an Italian daily newspaper which is affiliated with the Catholic Church and is based in Milan.
History and profile
''Avvenire'' was founded in 1968 in Milan through the merger of two Catholic newspapers: ''L' ...
'', owned by the Italian Episcopal Conference
The Italian Episcopal Conference ( it, Conferenza Episcopale Italiana) or CEI is the episcopal conference of the Italian bishops of the Catholic Church, the official assembly of the bishops in Italy.
The conference was founded in 1971 and carrie ...
. Izzo wrote: "We shouldn't touch the pope – the rock on which Jesus founded his Church." He continued: "Why should we support financially that which offends our religion?" Vatican Radio
Vatican Radio ( it, Radio Vaticana; la, Statio Radiophonica Vaticana) is the official broadcasting service of Vatican City.
Established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, ...
commented on the film and found it to contain "no irony, no caricature" of the pope. Regarding the prospect of an official condemnation of the film from church authorities, Sandro Magister
Sandro Magister (born 2 October 1943) is an Italian journalist who writes for the magazine ''L'espresso''.
Magister specializes in religious news, in particular on the Catholic Church and the Vatican. He has written two books on the political h ...
, an Italian journalist specialising in Vatican issues, said: "If there were to be one, it would only help the producer. He would be very happy with a polemic that is completely without foundation."
See also
* Cinema of Italy
The cinema of Italy (, ) comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film ...
* List of fictional clergy and religious figures
Clergy and other religious figures have generally represented a popular outlet for pop culture. Some of the more popular clergy, members of religious orders, and other religious personages featured in works of fiction are listed below.
All na ...
* Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI
The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI took effect on 28 February 2013 at 20:00 CET, following his announcement of it on 11 February. It made him the first pope to relinquish the office since Gregory XII was forced to resign in 1415 to end the Wes ...
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:We Have A Pope (Film)
2011 films
2011 comedy-drama films
Italian comedy-drama films
Religious comedy films
Films about fictional popes
Films about theatre
Films set in Vatican City
Films shot in Rome
Films directed by Nanni Moretti
2010s Italian-language films
Fandango (Italian company) films
France 3 Cinéma films