Edward Berger

Conclave

01/12/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

The Pope has died peacefully in his sleep and, following the long-established conventions of the Catholic church, archbishops and cardinals from across the world gather in The Vatican to undertake the complicated ritual of choosing a successor. The task of organising the ensuing (and highly secretive) process falls to Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the dean of the college of cardinals, who must put aside his personal grief in order to referee the resulting contest. But who will claim the coveted role?

Will it be Italian hardliner (and notorious racist) Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto)? How about the reserved but highly respected African contender, Adayemi (Lucian Msamati)? Might the prime slot fall to the influential and oleaginous American, Tremblay (John Lithgow), whose recent activities seem to suggest he’s not entirely trustworthy? And let’s not forget the wild card, newly arrived from Kabul, Benitez (Carlos Diehz), a bishop that none of the main players even knew existed, until now.

Meanwhile, one of the few women here with any influence, Sister Agnes (Isabella Rosselini), seems to be holding back on some important nuggets of information…

Lawrence is rooting for his old friend, Bellini (Stanley Tucci), a man determined to bring Catholicism into his more liberal worldview but an unexpected rivalry springs up when Lawrence finds himself also emerging as a potential candidate, something he most certainly does not want. After suffering doubts about his own faith, he’s been looking for an excuse to step quietly away from the church of Rome…

After his epic remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, director Edward Berger has turned his skills to a much more intimate story. Conclave, adapted by Peter Straughan from the novel by Robert Harris, generates its own, claustrophobic grip as the conclave moves through vote after vote, the various candidates jockeying for supremacy. This is serious, grown-up filmmaking and has about it all the mystery and intrigue of a superior crime drama. It’s heartening to note that a big crowd has turned out for this Sunday afternoon showing, a situation that these days is too often the preserve of more lightweight family fare.

It’s probably true to say that those who are already familiar with the novel are not going to be quite as blown away as I am by the film’s head-scrambling outcome, which I really, REALLY don’t see coming. (Those in the know, please keep the information to yourselves.)

Conclave is a compelling film, that has something revelatory to say about one of the most powerful and oppressive religions on the planet. It’s a film, moreover, that ingeniously encapsulates its most fundamental premise into a deceptively simple final shot.

4. 4 stars

Philip Caveney

All Quiet on the Western Front

05/11/22

Netflix

Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, first published in 1923, was that rarest of things – a runaway bestseller that carried at its heart a powerful anti-war message. In 1930 it was adapted into a movie, directed by Lewis Milestone, and it easily won that year’s Oscar for best film. In 1979, a pedestrian TV version struggled to compete with what had gone before and is now pretty much forgotten. It would be a brave soul indeed who thought they could do anything fresh with the subject.

Hats off then to writer/director Edward Berger, who steps gamely up to the diving board and takes a headlong plunge. Here is a version of the tale that doubles down on the futility of warfare and is able to depict the full visceral horror of life and death in the trenches in ways that Milestone would never have been allowed to in the 1920s.

We begin with a chilling scene of hundreds of dead German soldiers in the aftermath of a battle. We see their uniforms bieng stripped from them, then taken away to be laundered and packaged. Next we encounter our hero, Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), still a naïve teenage schoolboy. He and his classmates are swept up in the idea of being heroes for a just cause and can’t wait to enlist, to do their duty. But all too soon, they arrive on the Western Front, unwittingly wearing the dead men’s uniforms, and begin to realise that all their childish fantasies are about to be torn to pieces by the bloody conflict around them.

The set pieces that follow make for harrowing viewing. The battle scenes are epic in scale, brilliantly captured by James Friend’s cinematography, and Berger doesn’t flinch from depicting scenes of utter carnage. An extended sequence where Paul’s battalion encounters tanks for the first time is particularly memorable – but there are quieter scenes too. Paul’s growing friendship with his comrade ‘Kat’ (Albrect Schuch) is expertly drawn, and the regular cutaways to politician Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl), frantically trying to negotiate a truce as yet another brutal conflict approaches, add notes of suspense. Of course, we all know where this is leading. Volker Bertelmann’s ominous score contributes to the growing sense of unease.

Milestone’s iconic ending (taken from the novel) is so well known, I completely understand why Berger chose not to use it. In this version, he offers a desperate race against time, which may lack the elegance of the original concept, but the utter futility of the situation is once again brought to the fore and it makes for a powerful conclusion.

I can hardly recommend this as an uplifting watch – indeed, there are moments here that make me want to look away. But the novel’s original message is still very much in evidence.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney