Netflix's The Two Popes (2019) explores the fallibility of the infallible.
Netflix's The Two Popes (2019) explores the fallibility of the infallible. #Review
It would seem to be something of a contradiction in terms to deliver a warm and whimsical drama about the leadership of the Catholic Church during some of its most tumultuous years but that’s exactly what Fernando Meirelles’ gently absorbing chronicle of this archly ceremonial game of Papal thrones.
Essentially a biographical film tracing the ordination of Pope Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) and…
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Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes (Fernando Meirelles, 2019)
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce, Juan Minujin, Luis Gnecco, Cristina Banegas, María Ucedo, Renato Scarpa, Sidney Cole, Achille Brugnini. Screenplay: Anthony McCarten. Cinematography: César Charlone. Production design: Mark Tildesley. Film editing: Fernando Stutz. Music: Bryce Dessner.
I admit that there are two establishments I find utterly useless: the British royal family and the papacy. But that both somehow never fail to grab my interest whenever their internal workings are exposed to view, as in the TV series The Crown and Paolo Sorrentino's The Young Pope and its sequel, The New Pope. Fernando Meirelles's The Two Popes has some of the juicy insiderness of those series, but it feels hamstrung a bit by the fact that the relationship between Benedict XVI and Francis is an ongoing story. At the end of the film, Benedict and Francis have achieved a kind of rapprochement, but news stories since the movie's release have suggested there's a lot of continuing tension between the two. Where The Two Popes works best is in its portrait of the younger Francis's life in Argentina, in which Juan Minujin takes over the role from the Oscar-nominated Jonathan Pryce. I would have liked a corresponding treatment of the more controversial past of Joseph Ratzinger, the young Benedict, but that might have steered the film, already more than two hours long, in the direction of a miniseries. Anthony Hopkins also received an Oscar nomination (as supporting actor, though he receives top billing) for his performance as Benedict, and he manages to capture some of the narrow-eyed conservatism of that pope, which just left me wanting more.
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Phantom of Death: Police Comissioner Datti is investigating the murder of a female doctor whose murderer seems to be a thirty-fivish year old man. Soon another murder follows: Pianist Robert Dominici’s girlfriend is found killed. The killer also challenges Datti on the phone and says he can’t be caught since he has a secret which makes him invulnerable. In the meantime the clues seems to point in…
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Phantom of Death
Phantom of Death: Police Comissioner Datti is investigating the murder of a female doctor whose murderer seems to be a thirty-fivish year old man. Soon another murder follows: Pianist Robert Dominici’s girlfriend is found killed. The killer also challenges Datti on the phone and says he can’t be caught since he has a secret which makes him invulnerable. In the meantime the clues seems to point in…
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