Meurtre au Vatican

This is a hard movie to watch. If you can find a good, dubbed version with English subtitles, then you stand a chance to know what is happening. Terence Stamp is perfect. There is no doubt about that. However, nobody gives credit to Fabrizio Bentivoglio as he is the central figure of the film. At times, the movie drives off a cliff and takes the audience into a left field of confusion, but it is followed by some interesting camera styles to build an uncomfortable emotion. This occurs time and time again making the movie hard to watch. Believing this to be the intention of the filmmaker, I understand how complicated the goal of the story is since the subject matter is equally tough to digest. If you are a conspiracy theory buff, then this may not be the right film for you. Briefly based on factual historical events, this is more of a story about faith and the rules and devotion to the titles we live by.

This is a fictionalized version of the alleged "murder" of Pope John Paul I, which the author has mixed with a totally implausible story of an idealistic young priest who goes to India and Nepal and becomes an ecclesiastical Fascist. There's a seductive female terrorist too. It's hard to take this farrago of nonsense seriously, except that Terence Stamp is dignified as the Pope and everyone else, especially the young priest, is dreadful. The English dubbing is appalling: it sounds like low grade amateur theatricals. Naturally it's sad that the writer/director is dead, but this is very poor.

Italia-España-México Coproduction by Film International Company, Ízaro Films, Televicine S. A. de C. V . This is a Thriller/Political/Drama in which a young priest Bruno Martello (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) turns an eremit going to India and Nepal and becomes an ecclesiastical with revolutionary thought . Meanwhile , his mentor Padre Andreani (Terence Stamp) is appointed Papa Giovanni Clemente. This priest turned new Pope singlehandedly attempts to stop bigotry , strife , avoiding famine by selling church properties and treasures , world conflict , his own personal conflicts and many other difficulties , so he makes many enemies both inside the papal curia and outside . Along the way , Bruno Martello helps an injured female terrorist (Paula Molina) . As Bruno has had contact to terrorists and scheming to kill the pope by poisoning, while some priests of the catholic hierarchy are also planning to assassinate the pope by hiring professional assassins (Antonio Marsina).

Political fiction film that contains drama , interesting world policy , emotion , thriller and fictitional events about Vatican life . It is a moving and interesting film , though some moments results to be dull ; it seems to be a kind of follow-up to ¨The Shoes of Fisherman (1968)¨ by Michael Anderson with Anthony Quinn as a revolutionist Pope in a similar role to Terence Stamp as a new Father of the Catholic Church who fights to spread justice and has the strength of personality to adapt the doctrine of the Christian faith to modern times . This movie contains extensive information about Catholic faith & practice, being an unknown film that is not as bad as it seems and does not deserve its darkness, dealing with intense themes and fabulating about the strange and rapid death of Pope John Paul I just after his appointment as Supreme Pontiff. The better scenes of the flick are the following ones : when Professor Bruno is teaching at the University of Salamanca before his students and other professors and defends the questionable paleontologist and Jesuit Telihard de Cardin who rebelled against fundamentalism, integralism and traditional doctrine by exalting the scientific method and while the students caused scandal ruckus and mayhem . As well as the thought-provoking talking between the two priests , Bruno and Andreani : ¨There's an intense fight of the Catholic Church against its survival and against an ever-powerful adversary , we must use all the weapons of science and knowledge , giving energy to Church . Two religions facing each other . They have a God called 'Marx' , they have a Bible 'The Capital'. Lenin is the Messiah and the Kremlin is their Vatican . They even have their martyrs and their heretics . The confrontation attracts me , it attracts me like bad thoughts which should be pushed away , maybe in the next 10 years , the Church's destiny will be decided , and with it our destiny as Christians¨. Stars two good actors the Italian Fabrizio Bentivoglio and the British Terence Stamp , both of whom giving acceptable acting . Being a Spanish/Italian co-production appearing here and there important Spaniard actors , such as : Paula Molina , José Luis López Vázquez , Eduardo Fajardo , Pep Munné , Rafael Hernández , Lautaro Murúa , Emiliano Redondo and Italian ones as Gabriele Ferzetti and Antonio Marsina .

Musician Pino Donaggio provides an exciting and tense soundtrack , this composer set some American movies to music , such as : Dressed to kill, Body Double , Seed of Chucky , Death proof . It displays a colorful and evocative cinematography by cameraman Alejandro Ulloa who previoulsly photographed the classic Horror Express and a lot of Spanish/Italian co-productions. The motion picture was professional but regularly written and directed by Marcello Alliprandi. He was a director and writer , writing and directing a few films , being especially known for La mujer robot (1970), Orruzione al palazzo di giustizia (1975) , Un sussurro nel buio (1976) , Without the Peel or Skin deep (1979) , Soldato ignoto or Unknown soldirers (1995) , Prova di memoria (1992) until his early death at 63. Raing : 5.5/10 . Acceptable and passable .

I don't know about the "alleged" murder of a pontiff, but this was an ingriguing story. The young priest who comes back from India a changed man, somewhat mirrors Terence Stamp's own experience in the ashrams of India during the 1970s. Although Stamp had no malice in mind upon his return. The scenery in India was brief but striking, and obviously his experiences there impressionable to the extreme. It's as though the young priest and the pontiff exchanged realities: liberal vs. conservative; conservative vs. liberal. At any rate I was not disappointed in the film. I wasn't aware of any horrendous dubbing as another reviewer suggested. Certainly Terence Stamp was the highlight of this film -the ever subtle, yet commanding presence of Stamp continues to delight this fan!!!