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Oscar and BAFTA winner “Conclave” is one of a kind, but TheWrap decided to bless you with a list of “Conclave”-like movies to watch if you couldn’t stop praising the mysery-thriller.

From straight-forward pope films to men of faith questioning their religion or stories that portray a transition of power after a predecessor’s fall, all of these flicks follow the commandments of what makes “Conclave” a thought-provoking and fun watch.

Before or after you watch the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, check out these films that will answer all your prayers, just like “Conclave.”

“The Two Popes” (Netflix) “The Two Popes” (2019)

In Fernando Meirelles’ biographical drama, “The Two Popes” departing Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) and his successor Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce) must work together despite their conflicting views and move on from their past mistakes to secure the future of the Catholic Church. Like “Conclave,” the film...

When director Paolo Sorrentino’s hit series The Young Pope debuted in 2016, it took the Vatican a year to grudgingly bless his imagined and occasionally blasphemous portrayal of the pope. Not so for Sorrentino’s latest film Parthenope, which has gotten an early thumbs-down from Italy’s Catholic Church.

That has only seemed to pique interest in the film, driving it to the top of the box office here for Italian films since its release in theaters last month.

Set in Sorrentino’s native Naples, the film is a lush meditation on beauty, love and death, drawn from the Greek myth of the siren Parthenope, who throws herself into the sea after she fails to entice Odysseus with her song. Parthenope is closely affiliated with Naples, such that the city is sometimes called “Partenope” and its people “Partenopei” in Italian.

The film is by no means about the church, but toward the end,...

Francesca Archibugi on Paolo Virzì: “We actually were students together. We studied with Furio Scarpelli, who was a great screenwriter. I think we both loved him very much.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

As a screenwriter, Francesca Archibugi has worked with director/screenwriter Paolo Virzì on his films Magical Nights (Notti Magiche) and The Leisure Seeker (starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland) with Francesco Piccolo. Dry (Siccità) starring Monica Bellucci, Silvio Orlando, Valerio Mastandrea, Vinicio Marchioni, Claudia Pandolfi, Sara Serraiocco, and Tommaso Ragno is Archibugi’s third collaboration with Paolo Virzì, this time also with screenwriters Paolo Giordano and Francesco Piccolo.

Dry star Tommaso Ragno inside the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Piccolo is also the co-writer with Laura Paolucci on Archibugi’s The Hummingbird which was the opening night selection of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s...

Nanni Moretti always dresses impeccably — whether tuxed-up for the Cannes red carpet for his eight competition appearances since 1978 (his ninth, for A Brighter Tomorrow, will come May 24) or walking the Croisette in the casual chic (cashmere sweaters and chinos with open-collar shirts in dark gray or plum) that appears to come naturally to Italian men of Moretti’s generation. But the mantle of elder statesman of Italian cinema seems to hang on the 69-year-old director more like an ill-fitting suit.

It’s hard to deny Moretti’s position as a successor to the great neorealists — Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini — and the generation of New Wave heroes of the 1960s like Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci and Lina Wertmüller who reclaimed and restored Italian cinema after the ravages of fascism. His list of awards and acclaims alone — the Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room in 2001, Cannes best director in 1994 for Dear Diary,...

Paris-based company Kinology has secured international sales to “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire,” from Italian auteur and Cannes regular Nanni Moretti. Pic is currently shooting in Rome.

The deal between Kinology and Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, which is producing in tandem with Moretti’s Sacher shingle and Rai Cinema, marks the first time Kinology has handled a Moretti pic.

Kinology, which is headed by Grégoire Melin, will be launching pre-sales on “Il Sol” in Cannes.

Moretti’s latest work has been described by the director as both an unconventional comedy and a period piece set in Rome between the 1950s and the 1970s amid the city’s circus world, but also involving the world of cinema.

Though that is quite vague, what’s clear is that Moretti seems keen to shift gears, moving into lighter fare following his ensemble melodrama “Three Floors,” which was in Cannes last year.

Last week in Rome,...

Shooting is underway on “Woken,” a psychological thriller set on a remote island in the North Sea starring Erin Kellyman (“Solo: A Star Wars Story”) and Maxine Peake (“Funny Cow”).

The pic is being directed by first-time Irish director Alan Friel who previously worked with Peake on his prize-winning 2017 short “Cake.”

Cameras are rolling in Fanore Beach, Ireland, on “Woken,” which is being lead-produced by Ireland’s Fantastic Films. Fantastic has partnered on the pic with Italy’s Propaganda, the Rome-based indie shingle that is ramping up production and moving into the genre pics space.

“Woken,” which is also written by Friel, is set against a post-apocalyptic scenario in which the isle provides a safe haven from a pandemic that has decimated earth. The pic sees the protagonist Anna (Kellyman) wake up pregnant and unable to remember who her husband is. Nor does Anna recognize Helen and Peter who are...

Nanni Moretti is set to start shooting unconventional comedy “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire” in March. Pic will star French actor-director Mathieu Amalric and feature a cast comprising Polish multi-hyphenate Jerzy Stuhr.

Stuhr appeared in Moretti’s “We Have a Pope” and “The Caiman.” He will star in “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire” — which translates as “The Sun of the Future” — alongside Moretti regulars including Margherita Buy (“Three Floors”), Silvio Orlando (“The Caiman”) and Moretti himself.

Details of Moretti’s new film, revealed by the director in an interview with local trade publication Italian Cinema, have been confirmed by Fandango, which is producing in tandem with Moretti’s own Sacher shingle and Rai Cinema.

While the veteran auteur is keeping plot details under wraps, he has said that it’s a period piece set in Rome between the 1950s and the 1970s amid the city’s circus world, but will also involve the world of cinema.

Tre Piani

Italian auteur Nanni Moretti should be set to unveil his thirteenth narrative feature in 2021, Tre Piani, co-written by Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santella. As usual, Moretti is part of the cast, joined by a formidable ensemble including Riccardo Scamarcio, Margherita Buy, Alba Rohrwacher, Adriano Giannini, Elena Lietti, Denise Tantucci, Alessandro Sperduti, Anna Bonaiuto, Paolo Graziosi, Tommaso Ragno and Stefano Dionisi. The project is lensed by Dp Michele D’Attanasio.

Moretti won the Palme d’Or in 2001 for The Son’s Room. He competed in 1978 with Ecco Bombo, 1994 with Dear Diary (winning Best Director), 1998 with Aprile, 2006 with The Caiman, 2011 with We Have a Pope and in 2015 with Mia Madre (winning the Ecumenical Jury Prize).…...

Michel Piccoli, who has died at the age of 94, was one of the last great European actors of his generation. A character-actor and an everyman rather than a movie-star, Piccoli nevertheless displayed remarkable presence as a lead man and worked with many of the greatest directors of his time, from Godard to Carax. Piccoli was born in 1925, in Paris, between the world wars, and his career began as an extra in 1945. These were the years of small roles, and of work principally undertaken in the theatre. These were also years, looking a little outside of Piccoli’s life, when the idea of a united Europe was beginning to crystallize; as the young actor took more small or secondary roles, the treaties of Paris in 1951 and of Rome in 1957 contributed to create the European Economic Community. This is important, because from the moment that Piccoli’s career began, it opened itself...

From Godard’s Le Mépris to Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope, Piccoli’s prolific career saw him evolve into a legend of European cinema

•Michel Piccoli dies aged 94

•A life in pictures

In his 70-year career, working for directors like Godard, Bunuel, Varda, Clouzot, Hitchcock, Moretti, Chabrol and Sautet, Michel Piccoli had become something like a sacred or profane monster in French cinema: a character actor or complicated leading player who put strength into a picture like a flexed muscle. His robust, rugged looks were not quite like Gabin’s, and certainly a world away from the smouldering sexiness of Belmondo or the ethereal beauty of Delon. He could play a lost soul, a man with secrets, a predator, a sensualist, a politician, an artist, a leader of men. In both his youth and age he was intensely masculine in an unadorned and ungroomed way, the male version of jolie-laide,...

Michel Piccoli, the French screen star known for roles in Luis Buñuel’s “Belle de jour” and Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt,” has died. He was 94.

The actor’s family confirmed his death last week to Afp and Le Figaro on Monday.

Piccoli’s vast filmography, which spanned more than 200 films from 1949 to as recently as 2015, included a number of Buñuel’s films, including “Belle de jour,” “The Milky Way” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”

He also garnered acclaim for Godard’s “Contempt” (also known as “Le Mépris”), Jacques Rivette’s “La Belle Noiseuse,” Louis Malle’s “Milou in May,” Richard Dembo’s “Dangerous Moves” and Peter Del Monte’s “Traveling Companion.”

Most recently, Piccoli starred in Leos Carax’s “Holy Motors” (2012) and Nanni Moretti’s “We Have a Pope” (2011), for which he won the David di Donatello prize for Best Actor. He also provided the narration for Bertrand Mandico...

Michel Piccoli in one of his most memorable roles in Nanni Moretti’s We Have A Pope which he made at the age of 85 Photo: Unifrance One of French cinema’s monumental acting talents Michel Piccoli, famed for his roles in Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (Le Mépris), The Things Of Life (Les Choses De La Vie), by Claude Sautet, and more recently Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope (Hamemus papam), has died at the age of 94.

Piccoli had acted in movies by practically every major French filmmaker, starting with Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Demy, Costa-Gavras, Jacques Rivette and of course Godard, who cast him in Le Mépris (1963), adapted from Alberto Moravia's melancholy novel, opposite Brigitte Bardot.

He played in more than 60 theatre productions and 100 movies, yet Piccoli's beginnings were not auspicious. He started out in movies as an extra, to make money, and by the time he was discovered,...

Piccoli worked with Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Buñuel, Jean Renoir and Alfred Hitchcock.

French actor Michel Piccoli, star of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 classic Contempt, has died aged 94.

His family confirmed the news to French media on Monday (May 18).

In a career spanning more than 70 years and 200 films, some of Piccoli’s other memorable roles included six films with Luis Buñuel including The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie and Belle de Jour, Jean Renoir’s French Cancan, Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos, Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz and five features with Claude Sautet.

Piccoli won the best actor prize at the 1980 Cannes Film...

Prolific French actor Michel Piccoli, well known for his memorable performances in seminal European movies Le Mépris (Contempt) and Belle De Jour, has died aged 94 his family has confirmed to French media.

Piccoli starred in more than 200 movies during an acclaimed stage and screen career which began in the late 1940s and lasted until 2015.

Piccoli worked with iconic directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Bunuel, Jean Renoir, Alfred Hitchcock, Jacques Rivette and Jean-Pierre Melville. His collaborations with Godard included 1963’s Contempt and 1982’s Passion while multiple collaborations with Spanish director Buñuel included 1967’s Belle de jour, 1969’s The Milky Way and 1972’s The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie.

The film vet won the best actor prize in Cannes in 1980 for Marco Bellochio’s A Leap In The Dark and a Silver Bear in Berlin two years later for Pierre Granier-Deferre’s Strange Affair. He received four Cesar nominations.

The actor...

Tre piani

Italy’s Nanni Moretti breaks a five-year hiatus (from feature films) with his thirteenth narrative, Tre piani, which is also the director’s first adaptation. Moretti assembles a high profile cast including Riccardo Scamarcio, Margherita Buy, Alba Rohrwacher, Adriano Giannini, Elena Lietti, Denise Tantucci, Alessandro Sperduti, Anna Bonaiuto, Paolo Graziosi, Tommaso Ragno, Stefano Dionisi and himself. Cinematographer Michele D’Attanasio lensed the feature, produced through Sacher Film, Fandando, Rai Cinema and Le Pacte. Moretti has competed seven times in Cannes, with 1978’s Ecco Bombo, 1994’s Dear Diary (winning Best Director), 1998’s Aprile, 2001’s The Son’s Room (which won the Palme d’Or), 2006’s The Caiman, 2011’s We Have a Pope and 2015’s Mia Madre (winning the Ecumenical Jury Prize).…...

The evolving landscape of the moving image, especially this last decade, has been the subject of endless discussions which we predict will only amplify in the decade(s) to come. Capping off the 2010s, France’s esteemed publication Cahiers du cinéma have now unveiled their best of the decade list and it will surely further ignite the conversation of how we define cinema.

Topping their list is David Lynch’s 18-hour masterwork Twin Peaks: The Return, which fittingly is getting an epic new home video release before the decade comes to a close. The endlessly inventive Holy Motors, Leos Carax’s only film of the ‘10s, came in at the number two spot, while Bruno Dumont’s eccentric 3.5-hour murder mystery of sorts, Li’l Quinquin, is number three.

If one has been paying attention to their yearly best-of lists then the rest shouldn’t be much of a surprise,...

Over the top, excessive, too much reliance on anonymous sexy young women for thrills…definitely an inferior work! Let’s hope it is not a trend.

I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo.”

Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.

German indie powerhouse The Match Factory has added Italian auteur Nanni Moretti’s next film, “La Nostra Strada,” a Rome-set ensemble drama that will start shooting in March, to its Efm slate.

“La Nostra Strada” will be Moretti’s 14th feature and the first time the Palme d’Or-winning director will not be working from an original idea. It is based on Israeli author Eshkol Nevo’s novel “Thee Floors Up,” according to the film’s casting announcement and to the book’s Italian publisher, Neri Pozza.

The novel is set in a Tel Aviv building in which the residents’ lives, secrets, inner turmoils, and interpersonal dynamics provide a prism through which to view Israeli society. “La Nostra Strada” (which translates as “Our Street”) transposes the novel to an Italian setting and “follows the lives of three families who live in a three-story building in a Roman neighborhood,” The Match Factory said in a statement.

The fifteenth entry in an on-going series of audiovisual essays by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin. Mubi will be showing Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room (2001) May 21 - June 20 in the United States.A water polo celebrity who freezes inexplicably before firing between the goal posts (Palombella rossa, 1989). A newly elected Pope who finds himself unable to address the faithful masses from the Vatican balcony, and instead furtively flees into the streets (Habemus Papam, 2011). A film director who can no longer hold it together on set, as her mother lays dying in hospital (Mia madre, 2015). Nanni’s Moretti’s films often address urgent issues of personal blockage, panic, fear, grief, and especially life-sapping depression—always within the ever-widening, intersubjective circles of family, work, community, and society. His wisdom recalls that of the militant psychoanalyst Félix Guattari, who commented in the 1970s that genuine political change will only occur “from...

Mia Madre director Nanni Moretti with Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: Lilia Blouin

Margherita Buy, Giulia Lazzarini, John Turturro, Beatrice Mancini, Enrico Ianniello and Nanni Moretti star in Mia Madre (My Mother), Moretti's multi-layered, personal and universal exploration into private emotions and public movie work.

Meeting the director for a morning conversation at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, not far from Central Park, we discussed how Wim Wenders' angels from Wings Of Desire fit in with Mia Madre, grammar turning into grandma and the work of mourning.

Nanni Moretti as Giovanni: "There is reality, there is the film inside the film and then there's dreams, memories, fantasies."

I had suggested screening We have A Pope (Habemus Papam), when Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk, the New York Film Festival's Opening Night Gala screening was moved a day due to the visit of Pope Francis and the Film Society of Lincoln Center...

A film-maker has to cope with her dying mother and a pompous American star in this tragicomic triumph by Nanni Moretti

Italian tragicomic auteur Nanni Moretti approached the subject of his own mortality in 1993’s international breakthrough feature Caro diario (Dear Diary), which documented, among other things, his all too real encounter with cancer. In his most celebrated feature, the 2001 Palme d’Or winner La stanza del figlio (The Son’s Room), he dealt superbly with parental bereavement and mourning. Now, in Mia Madre, he focuses on the impending loss of a mother, drawing heavily upon personal experience (Moretti’s own mother Agata died while he was completing 2011’s Habemus Papam/We Have a Pope), but also keeping enough distance from his subject to achieve a sense of universality. The beautifully observed and delicately balanced result is a sublimely modulated blend of laughter and tears, a film that cuts to...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit in The Walk

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that the New York Film Festival Alice Tully Hall Opening Night Gala screening of Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk in 3D, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit with Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon and Ben Schwartz, has been rescheduled due to the New York City visit of Pope Francis.

The Walk will now have its world premiere on Saturday, September 26 for "logistical and security reasons." The New York Film Festival is looking to program free screenings for the opening day on Friday. Nanni Moretti's We Have A Pope (Habemus Papam) would make for an interesting choice.

Tickets for the 53rd New York Film Festival will go on sale in early September.

This year's New York Film Festival runs from September 25 through October 11....

Actor John Turturro to visit Jerusalem and take part in opening ceremony

Nanni Moretti’s My Mother (Mia Madre) is to open the 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival (July 9-19).

The movie’s premiere in Israel will be screened at the Sultan’s Pool on July 9, following its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

The opening ceremony will be attended by John Turturro, who stars in the movie.

Italian maverick Moretti’s latest film, which stars Margherita Buy alongside the director, is a return to the family drama he explored in 2001 Palme d’Or winner The Son’s Room.

This time it’s a mother’s slow decline that sparks the melodrama, leavened by comic touches courtesy of a film within the film featuring a Us actor played by Turturro.

Moretti’s previous film in Cannes Competition was 2011 papal dramedy We Have A Pope (Habemus Papam).

Jff director Noa Regev said the selection...

Other prizes go to My Mother, Masaan and Paulina.

Hungarian Holocaust drama Son of Saul has been named the best film in the main Competition section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival by Fipresci, the International Federation of Film Critics.

Review: Son of Saul

Laszlo Nemes directorial debut - the only debut in this year’s Competition line-up - is about a Hungarian prisoner assigned to work in one of the crematoria of Auschwitz who, finding a body he believes is his son, sets out to find a rabbi to bury him.

Sold by Films Distribution, it was snapped up during the festival by Curzon Artificial Eye for the UK, Sony Pictures Classics for the Us and several other territories.

It ranked joint second on Screen’s Cannes Jury Grid, with no prizes as yet for joint leaders Carol and The Assassin.

Nemes previously worked as assistant director to Bela Tarr on The Man From London (2007).

Masaan...

Exclusive: Marguerite Buy, John Turturro and Nanni Moretti lead cast in film currently shooting in Rome.

Films Distribution has acquired worldwide rights to Nanni Moretti’s upcoming dramedy Mia Madre about a film director juggling her contrasting public and private lives.

Marguerite Buy, John Turturro and Nanni Moretti lead the cast in the film, which is currently shooting in Rome.

Buy plays a successful film director whose powerful on-set persona is at odds with her private self.

On set, Buy’s character takes command. Back home, she is at the mercy of her ailing mother and taciturn adolescent son.

John Turturro plays an American actor in a film she is shooting. Moretti is also in the cast in the role of the filmmaker’s brother.

“Moretti never under estimates the audience’s intelligence. The characters are as smart as you want them to be, or as they should be,” said Films Distribution co-chief Nicolas Brigaud-Robert.

“It’s a dramedy...

Stephen Frears's film about an Irish woman, played by Judi Dench, who is trying to trace the child that was taken from her reveals the sins and the secret strength of the religion

• Video interview: Steve Coogan and Martin Sixsmith on Philomena

• The film reviewed in the Guardian, the Observer & on video

As the world's biggest, oldest, most influential and perhaps most colourful institution of any kind, the Catholic church has surely merited more attention than cinema has accorded it. Angels & Demons and Habemus Papam gave a hint of the possibilities, and that somewhat minor branch of pastoral activity, exorcism, has been more than adequately explored. Otherwise, we've had saintly but boring priests such as those of The Bells of St Mary's and Angels with Dirty Faces or absurdly delightful nuns like those in The Sound of Music and The Nun's Story.

In part, the prevalence of such sympathetic...

Though Pope Francis has only been in office for about seven months, he’s quickly becoming a groundbreaking figure in the Catholic Church. On Sept. 19, he added to his previous tolerant comments towards homosexuals and moved the Church another step closer to universal acceptance.

Pope Francis I truly is a pope for the 21st century. In an interview published on Sept. 19, the trailblazing head of the Catholic Church made more comments promoting tolerance towards gays and lesbians.

Pope Francis On Gay Rights

“Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person,” the Pope said in an interview with La Civilta Cattolica, which was published today in 16 different languages, according to CNN.

Pope Francis expounded on his stance towards gays and lesbians, saying, “The catechism,...

This lovely modern fairytale, now on rerelease, stars Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn both irradiating the whole movie with their charm

William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953, now on rerelease) is a modern fairytale whose two leads have a charm and innocence that irradiate the whole movie – a kind of neofabulism to set aside the Italian neorealists. Gregory Peck plays Joe, a Us news stringer in Rome who one night stumbles across the story of the century: a beautiful, shy young woman, eager for some adventure with him as her guide. She turns out to be demure Princess Ann, from an imaginary European country, who has escaped from all the embassy stuffed shirts and is now incognito and on the town. Audrey Hepburn was perfectly cast here, as she was perfectly miscast in Breakfast at Tiffany's. (Perhaps her superb poise emboldened Grace Kelly three years later to face a similar trial as Princess Grace.

With all the papal craziness right now, it's no surprise that Sundance Selects is rebooking Nanni Moretti's 2011 competition Cannes entry "We Have a Pope" ("Habemus Papam") in a theater near you. "Recent world events made it irresistible for us to bring back 'We Have a Pope,'" said President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films Jonathan Sehring, "which mirrors what much of the discussion on the world stage has been over the last few weeks."  In "We Have a Pope" the newly elected Pope (Michel Piccoli) suffers a panic attack just as he is due to appear on St Peter's balcony to greet the faithful. His advisors seek help from an atheist shrink played by Moretti. My interview with Moretti is here. The run begins next Wednesday at New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, and nationally on multiple digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon, Xbox, GooglePlay, Sony Play Station and SundanceNOW. Moretti...

(Source)

All hail Pope Francis I, your flavorful new Argentinian pope of endless power and infallibility. Or not, if you don't believe that popes are magic. Whatever!

As the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio addressed his legions of devotees at the Vatican yesterday, noted homosexuals took to Twitter to air their feelings/grievances/puuns. Here are 12 of my favorite gay-invented quips about the new pope, a man I'm calling Jorge Bergoglio Argentina. Because Penelope Cruz won an Oscar for that.

First, a tweet of my own, then 12 of Twitter's gay best.

New pope: "Gay marriage is a machination of the Father of Lies." Ugh, the Father of Lies rejected me on Craigslist too.

— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) March 13, 2013

Regarding the pope's blockbuster potential, Chris Schleicher had to wonder...

"I had Francis-cum last night" - Sex and the City 3: Roman Holiday / Rt @pontifex Habemus Papam Franciscum

— Chris Schleicher (@cschleichsrun) March 13, 2013

The pope...

At this point, pretty much everybody has heard the big recent news. No, not the fact that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher are returning as Luke, Han, and Leia for Star Wars Episode VII, but Pope Benedict XVI announcing his resignation – the first time a Pope has resigned since 1415 – and his successor being announced: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, or Pope Francis, as he will be known.

In light of this, let's take a look at the film We Have a Pope (aka Habemus Papam), which, fittingly, not only concerns similar (if fictional) events, but also puts forth the theme of humility.

Whatever your religious views (or otherwise) may be, and whatever you may think of either Pope, the outgoing Pope's official statement (and in fact, the resignation itself) shows humility. To quote a few relevant parts of it:

"...both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months,...

Habemus Papam. And habemus a whole lot of feverish airtime. Lavishing the kind of attention on the papal appointment usually reserved for national presidential elections, cable news channels broke in on scheduled programming Wednesday to switch to saturation coverage of events at Vatican City. From the moment the white plume of smoke was spotted over Saint Peter’s Basilica, signaling the successful election of a Pope after an unexpectedly swift two-day conclave, it was all Rome, all the time. Story: Pope Chosen: What Hollywood Is Saying Intensive coverage of the Roman Catholic Church from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and their

read more...

A huge day deserves a huge announcement — and what better way to do it than with a tweet?

The Twitterverse exploded with anticipation over the announcement of the new Pope on March 13, and now one more voice has joined the conversation: the new Pope himself, Jorge Mario Bergoglio! Yes, the Vatican finally reactivated the official Pope Twitter handle shortly after announcing Pope Francis I.

“Habemus Papam Franciscum,” the tweet read, which roughly translates to: “We have Pope Francis.”

Within minutes, the historic tweet was retweeted more than 40,000 times.

The account had been deactivated after Pope Benedict XVI, but with a new man now in charge, it was time to get back to business.

Celebrities Tweet About Pope Francis I

Hollywood was also buzzing with news of the new Pope, through in true celeb form, not everyone treated the historic event with sincerity.

“There’s also white smoke coming out of my office,...

With the appearance of white smoke above The Vatican on Mar. 13, celebs like Joan Rivers, Seth Rogen and more took to Twitter to talk about the imminent announcement of the new Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio! Read on to see what they had to say.

On Mar. 13, after two days of voting, white smoke was seen rising from the chimney of the Vatican in Rome, meaning that a replacement for Pope Benedict XVI had been found. This being such a momentous occasion in world news, several celebs took to Twitter to speak their mind. Some, like Seth Rogen and Joan Rivers, took the opportunity to crack wise, while others, like Maria Shriver and Real Housewives of New York City‘s Ramona Singer, were a bit more serious about the revelation that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, would become Pope Francis I.

Joan, of course, took the chance to poke fun at the moment.

Habemus papam! St. Peter's Square erupted in cheers on Wednesday, March 13, when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, henceforth known as Pope Francis, was announced as Pope Benedict XVI's successor. But the excitement wasn't confined to Vatican City; within seconds of the big reveal, the internet was flooded with reactions from people all over the world. Among the many who took to Twitter to weigh in on the election of the 76-year-old Argentinian Archbishop -- the first pope ever to come from South America -- were stars including [...]...

Habemus papam -- we have a pope! So went the cheers outside the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City on Wednesday, March 13, when white smoke rose from the chimney, signaling the election of a new pope to lead the Roman Catholic Church following Pope Benedict XVI's resignation. The identity of the new pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was revealed a short time later when the 76-year-old Argentinian Archbishop emerged on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, having been chosen by a group of 115 cardinal-electors. Voting took [...]...

Four days following Pope Benedict XVI's official step-down from the papacy, more than 100 cardinals are rallying inside the Vatican to begin the election of a new pope. Anyone familiar with Italian auteur Nanni Moretti's Catholicism comedy "Habemus Papam" ("We Have a Pope"), in which a reluctant cardinal (Michel Piccoli) begrudgingly is elected pope and sees a shrink (Moretti) in order to try and come to terms with accepting the job, can grin at the possibility of life imitating art. (Our Cannes interview with Moretti is here.) Reportedly the cardinals are excited at the prospect of a new pope, with one Portuguese cardinal telling TV crews, "A Latin-American pope is possible, anything is possible!" Preparations for the conclave are rigorous, with security measures including closing the Sistine Chapel and confirming that the Vatican hotel is debugged. Many observers, including documentarian Alex Gibney ("Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God...

Just hours ago, Pope Benedict XVI spent his final moments as Pontiff. His famous Twitter page, @Pontifex now simply reads “Sede Vacante,” or empty seat. Being the first Pope to resign in some 600 years, Benedict XVI leaves the over 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world leaderless until the conclusion of the upcoming Papal Conclave. Benedict’s resignation has thrust the media into speculation about his reasons for stepping down. It’s an interesting situation that has many asking; what if the Pope just decides he no longer want to be Pope?

This very question was raised, prophesized in some respects, in last years wonderfully funny We Have A Pope. Italian director Nanni Moretti poignantly captured a Pope’s crisis of faith, in what can now be pointed to as the seminal film about pontifical abdication. In the shadow of Benedict XVI’s final day I revisit We Have a Pope...

In a transparent attempt to piggyback on a major news event and use it as an excuse to talk about films, here are some of our favourite cinematic popes

Following news that Benedict XVI is to be the first pope to resign in 600 years, we introduce the only important matter for debate: what are the best on-screen portrayals of pontiffs? Here are a few of our favourites, including nominations from @guardianfilm Twitter followers @Lazslokovacs, @farah0912‏, @nigelfloyd, @pafster, ‏@DulachG, ‏@filipequintans and ‏@FPSFilm.

1. Robbie Coltrane in The Pope Must Die

The film might not have been a classic, but Robbie Coltrane is certainly one of the most memorable movie popes.

Reading on mobile? Watch the clip on YouTube

2. Rex Harrison in The Agony and the Ecstasy

Rex Harrison is a remarkably shouty Pope Julius II, butting heads over the painting of the Sistine chapel with an even shoutier Michelangelo in Charlton Heston.

France's foremost newspaper, Le Monde, published an interesting article entitled Les internautes soulignent un conflit d'interets pour Nanni Moretti, or The Web Surfers Underline a Conflict of Interests for Nanni Moretti about the possible confict of interest between the President of the Jury of the Cannes Film Festival, Nanni Moretti, and the prizewinners. When someone gave me a "tip" ahead of the awards, saying that Moretti's companies, Sacher Films and Sacher Distribuzione, were named after his favorite food, the Austrian Sacher Torte, I took it as a joke. But truth be told, Austrian Michael Haneke's winning film, Amour, was truly great, a deeply moving and inevitably sad story told with more light than I've ever seen in a Haneke film (and I have seen most of them). The redemptive power of love is surrounded with a golden halo giving greater space and more breathing room for inner contemplation than any scene in last year's Palme d'Or winner, The Tree of Life whose message (I think) was the same.

With a jury of four women out of eight members, it's a shame that among the 22 films in Competition, there was not a film by a woman to be seen. If this is a concern to you, as it is to the majority of women in the film business that I've spoken with and to many men as well, you can sign a petition to register your concerns here. You can also read and see the opening comments of the jury here.

I have translated the Le Monde article by Aureliano Tonet here:

The Web Surfers Underline a Conflict of Interests for Nanni Moretti

Every year, as soon as the Cannes awards are announced, scrutinizers of the Festival of Cannes experience heartfelt joy on social networks as they tear apart or vilify the oracle rendered by the jury. This year, the Palm d’Or winner, Michael Haneke for Love, hardly suffered from dispute. Over the internet, criticisms concentrated on the remainder of the prizes allotted on Sunday May 27. Four of six films awarded by the jury chaired by Nanni Moretti are indeed coproductions and/or distributed by the same company, Le Pacte. This includes Reality (Isa: Fandango Portobello) of Matteo Garrone (Grand Prix), The Angels' Share (Isa: Wild Bunch) of Ken Loach (Jury Prize), Post Tenebras Lux (Isa: Mantarraya) of Carlos Reygadas (Best Director), and Beyond the Hills (Isa: Wild Bunch) of Cristian Mungiu (Best Actress Prize and Best Screenplay). In addition, Le Pacte has coproduced the last film of Nanni Moretti, Habemus papam (Isa: Fandango Portobello), that it also distributed in the French cinemas. This company is run by the Jean Labadie, ex-owner of Bac Films. Prior to the founding of Le Pacte in 2008, Bac Films was the historical distributor of films of Nanni Moretti in France. In addition, Le Pacte presented a fifth feature film on the 22nd May which also counted in the official competition, The Taste of the Money (Isa: Daisy and Cynergy Entertainment in So. Korea) of Sang-Soo Im, snubbed by the jury. Contrary to Holy Motors (Isa: Wild Bunch) of Leos Carax, or Rust and Bone (Isa: Flanders Image) of Jacques Audiard, which came out empty-handed, The Angels’ Share and especially Post Tenebras Lux received a very mixed reception on the part of the international press.

It is not the first time that a suspicion of a conflict of interest sullies the decision with a Cannes jury. In 2004, Quentin Tarantino had offered the Palm d’Or to Fahrenheit 9/11 of Michael Moore and both worked with the same producers, Bob and Harvey Weinstein. Five years later, in 2009, Isabelle Huppert had presided over the jury which awarded The White Ribbon of Michael Haneke, who had directed her on several occasions.

In addition to Nanni Moretti, the jury of the Festival of Cannes this year included Hiam Abbas ♀, Andrea Arnold ♀, Emmanuelle Devos ♀, Jean Paul Gaultier, Diane Kruger ♀, Ewan McGregor, Alexander Payne and Raoul Peck.

Aureliano Tonet...

The Croissette was slick with rain again on Sunday night for the 65th Cannes Film Festival's closing ceremony, which one colleague joked was a tribute to the 1964 Palme d'Or winner The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière, this year's jury was led by president Nanni Moretti, the Italian filmmaker whose Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope) screened in 2011's main competition. Moretti's jury also included actor Ewan McGregor, The Descendants writer-director Alexander Payne, Inglourious Basterds actress Diane Krueger, British auteur Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank), Palestinian actress-filmmaker Hiam Abbass (The Visitor), French actress Emmanuelle Davos (Kings & Queen), Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck (Lumumba), and designer Jean-Paul Gaultier in the wild-card slot. For this writer, comfortably dry and watching the awards on TV at a nearby flat, that nine-member think tank's choices proved parochial, or at least yawn-stifingly uninspired, but that reaction might be because the competition's four best films—Leo Carax's Holy Motors,...

All the news, reviews, comment and buzz from the Croisette on day six of the Cannes film festival

10.31am: Hello again: Cannes 2012 day six rolls round – after a very good weekend for the competition which we saw a wonderfully well reviewed Michael Haneke film, and good notices for two missing-in-action auteurs, Cristian Mungiu and Thomas Vinterberg, with Beyond the Hills and The Hunt (Jagten) respectively.

Outside the Palme d'Or nominees, things were a tad less rosy. "Pasty" Pete Doherty showed up for a screening of his acting debut, Confession of a Child of the Century: reaction, to be honest, was not good. Catherine will be filing a review later on – the word "catastrophic" was used. Brandon "son of David" Cronenberg debuted Antiviral: again, word was iffy; we'll have Peter's review launched fairly soon. And Henry appears to be giving girl group yarn The Sapphires a qualified thumbs-up: "sugary" would be the key concept here,...

We Have a Pope

Directed by: Nanni Moretti,

Cast: Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Margherita Buy

Running Time: 1 hr 42 mins

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: April 27, 2012 (Chicago)

Plot: A cardinal (Piccoli) decides that he doesn’t want to be pope, despite being selected by his superiors.

Who’S It For? Religious moviegoers might find this to be funny, with its respectful portrayal of respected figures and of the Vatican itself. However, everyone, not just those who believe in the pope, will be shaken up by this movie’s moments in the third act.

Overall

With all of the pressures and requirements, being a world leader must be the worst job in the world. But what could be even more dreadful? How about considering denying papacy after being elected to rule the Catholic world?

Michel Piccoli plays Cardinal Melville, a simple cardinal who comes to the Vatican after the recent pope’s...

With this year’s Cannes Film Festival quickly coming round the bend, now’s as good a time as any to officially start the Fsr pre-festival coverage, and as if by magic, perhaps sensing that I was about to do so, the good folks on the south coast of France have announced that Tim Roth will lead the jury of the festival’s secondary competition. The Un Certain Regard competition seeks to offer films with some intriguing hook or selling point, setting a different tone to the main competition and occasionally unearthing some genuine gems thanks to its agenda of championing new talents. It is that competition that the British actor, famed for such roles as Reservoir Dogs and lately Lie To Me, will preside over, perhaps bringing his own stamp to affairs. So, we can probably expect violence and facial intensity to play a big part – and if Roth’s own The War Zone is anything...

Director Marco Tulio Giordana's Romanzo Di Una Strage has landed 16 nominations for Italy's David di Donatello Awards just two weeks after the film's release.

The stirring movie, which chronicles the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, picked up Best Film, Best Director and Best Producer nods, while leading man Valerio Mastandrea was nominated among the Best Actor hopefuls.

The film was released in Italy on 30 March to huge national acclaim.

Close behind Giordana's film among the nominees announced on Thursday, were Nanni Moretti's comedy Habemus Papam (15 nods) and Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place (14 nods), which features Sean Penn as a fallen rock star.

Also up for Best Film: Cesare deve moriere and Terraferma, while Mastandrea will fight it out with Frenchman Michel Piccoli (Habemus Papam), Elio Germano (Magnifica presenza), Fabrizio Bentivoglio (Scialla!) and Marco Giallini (Posti in piedi in paradiso) for the Best Actor award.

The Best Actress nominees are: Donatella Finocchiaro (Terraferma), Micaela Ramazzoti (Posti in piedi in paradiso), Claudia Gerini (Il mio domani), Valeria Golino (La kryptonite nella borsa) and Chinese actress Zhao Tao (Io sono Li).

Roman Polanski’s Carnage, Melancholia, Le Havre, Oscar winner The Artist and Intouchables are all up for the Best European Union film trophy, while Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, Ides of March, The Tree of Life and Asghar Farhadi’s Best Foreign Film Oscar winner A Separation will compete for the Best Foreign Film prize.

The awards will be announced on 4 May.

Film: We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam) (2011) Cast includes: Michel Piccoli (A Leap in the Dark), Nanni Moretti (The Son's Room), Margherita Buy (Days and Clouds) Director: Nanni Moretti (The Caiman) Genre: Light Drama | Comedy | Satire (102 minutes) Crowds gather in St. Peter's Square to pray and to wait. It's a sea of scarlet as 108 cardinals make their way to the Sistine Chapel for the conclave. Journalists struggle for scraps of information... a hopeless pursuit. Once they finally get the lights turned on in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals get down to the task of voting. When each has written a name on his ballot, he signals that he's finished by tapping his pen. As the votes are counted, most cardinals have a similar silent prayer... "Not me. Oh Lord, please not me." Although Cardinal Gregory gets the most votes in the first round, the vote isn't decisive. The smoke is black.

We Have a Pope / Habemus Papam

Directed by Nanni Moretti

Written by Nanni Moretti, Francesco Piccolo and Federica Pontremoli

Italy / France, 2011

We Have a Pope gets off to a colourful start, with the masses in Saint Peter’s Square feasting their eyes on a sea of red capes, white lace and ecclesiastical bling. On paper, Nanni Moretti’s film promises swinging satire and perhaps some searching questions about how the Roman Catholic Church chooses its leader. Unfortunately he’s bottled it – serving up a comedy so mild it should come with a Papal Seal of Approval.

Michel Piccoli stars as Cardinal Melville, chosen by his peers to be the new Pope after lengthy deliberations and much collective boredom. It turns out that no one really wanted the job (“Not me, Lord”), so Melville is just the poor schmuck who’s drawn the short straw. In a wonderfully anti-climactic moment he...

Deeply shrouded in mystery, the election of the Pope is a strange amalgam of modern democracy and ancient ritual. It is also a circumstance that seems ripe for farce. At least Nanni Moretti, perhaps Italy’s most revered contemporary filmmaker, seems to think so. His newest film, We Have a Pope, which premiered last year in Cannes as Habemus Papam, is an often funny, sneakily moving investigation of the Vatican’s less-than-infallible process of choosing the divine, and one man’s rejection of his supposedly divine calling. Starring Michel Piccoli as a would-be Pope who disappears after his election and Moretti himself as the psychoanalyst charged with helping the new Pope through his post-election panic, We Have a Pope finds the director, as he did in 2006′s veiled Berlusconi biopic Il Caimano, pondering the inner life of one of Italy’s most powerful, iconic men.

Since his 1976 feature debut, I...

We Have a Pope Trailer, Habemus Papam Trailer. Nanni Moretti‘s We Have a Pope / Habemus Papam (2011) movie trailer stars Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa, Nanni Moretti, and Margherita Buy. We Have a Pope‘s plot synopsis: “In his latest comedy, We Have A Pope, Palme d’Or-winner Nanni Moretti (The Son’S Room) joins forces with the great French actor Michel Piccoli (Contempt) to tell the story of Melville, a cardinal who suddenly finds himself elected as the next Pope. Never before in the spotlight and completely caught off guard, he panics as he’s presented to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square.

To prevent a worldwide crisis, the Vatican calls in an unlikely psychiatrist who is neither religious or all that committed, played by Moretti, to find out what is wrong with the new Pope and come to a solution. We Have A Pope gives marvelous...

Having previously won the Palme d'Or for "The Son's Room" in 2001, expectations were likely riding a little too high when festival regular Nanni Moretti returned to the Croisette last year to premiere "We Have a Pope" (aka "Habemus Papam"). Perhaps put off by the lighter, crowd-pleasing tone, the film was met with a lukewarm reception, but now as it heads into theaters, we urge you to give a shot.

French actor Michel Piccoli plays the newly elected pope, who begins to question whether or not his own faith is strong enough to be worthy of the job, and whether the sacfrice of everyday life is worth graduating to the most powerful and revered post in Catholicism. Veering between comedy and drama, Moretti (who also co-stars as the pope's psychoanalyst) creates a piece that is continually unexpected, and while it's certainly a film that will have no problem finding a more mainstream audience,...