“Conclave” | Scene structure

“Hello, my name is Edward Berger, and I'm the director of the movie “Conclave.'' Now, we're about 30 minutes into the movie. We set up this place because the Vatican and the Pope passed away. And now Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, is the dean of the College of Cardinals, meaning he must organize the upcoming election of a new pope. And today is his big day. Because today is the first day of the conclave, which means all doors are closed. Cardinals head to the Sistine Chapel to vote for the next pope. Then Ralph Fiennes gives a greeting. And I chose this song first. It's actually the only music that hasn't been composed. Everything else is made up in the movie. In other words, it is the only source music sung by a choir. And it's the only music that's been played in the Sistine Chapel for hundreds of years. And I found this fact on the 6am tour. We went on a guided tour to the Sistine Chapel and it was empty. This is the only time it's empty. If you go at 6am and the guide says, “This is this song.” So I looked for it and found something very moving and beautiful. So I decided to put it in the movie. Ralph then starts giving a speech in Italian. Ralph spent a lot of time practicing his Italian, but he was actually very resolute. We always had someone, like a dialogue coach or an Italian woman, who would listen to his diction and everything. She was very happy with his performance. Because he was so meticulous and I felt it was believable that he had lived there for 25 years and had been practicing Italian for 25 years. So we paid very close attention to that. But at some point, something hits him. Then he stops. Then he switches to English, the natural language. “But you know all that.” “Let me speak from the heart for a moment.” And really makes a speech about his true feelings, and it's questionable. He has expressed doubts about his own faith, his purpose in the church, the church in general, what he thinks the next pope should be, and who will accept and succumb to doubt. . And that intuitive speech, that giving in to it, raises a lot of eyebrows. As you may have noticed in this scene, we are quite open-minded towards Ralph when he first speaks Italian. We're from behind. It's from the profile. And as soon as he speaks from the heart and changes the way he speaks, we go into a close-up, a front-center close-up, and the camera starts moving. And it's really only one shot. “Certainty is the deadly enemy of unity.'' “Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance.'' It took just one shot, a small, continuous nudge as Ralph spoke, and he I lose myself in the middle of the day and don't notice anyone around me. And that's only after he's finished. We cut to the other side of the wide shot where all the Cardinals are listening. “If there is only certainty and no doubt, there is no mystery, so there is no need for faith.'' “Let us pray that God will give us a pope who doubts.'' In this scene, Ralph Fiennes emerges as a noteworthy character. When he gives a heartfelt speech, the other cardinals, especially those with ambitions to become the next pope, suddenly fear that there is a new candidate in the room. And that's the climax of this scene.