There are lots of series and movies about popes, the Holy See and the Catholic Church. Many are good. There can be more critical and caustic or sympathetic to the Church, but they always captivate an audience attracted by the seductive theme, in which morality is associated with tradition, brightness and pomp, and the expectation of something scandalous.
This series does not deviate much from these rules and gives us a panorama difficult to imagine: after the death of a popular pope, very dear to everyone (who could well be the current pontiff), the Conclave, despite all the maneuvers of manipulation, chooses a young American cardinal, Lenny Belardo, a protégé of one of the main candidates for the papacy, Cardinal Spencer, Archbishop of New York. Indifferent to everyone's shock (especially the old American Cardinal, who hoped to be elected, and Cardinal Secretary of State Voiello, the face of a manipulative and cynical papal curia), Lenny accepts and takes the name Pius XIII, leading to an unparalleled revolution: preferring not to publicize his image and to maintain as little contact as possible with the faithful, he hides and tries to free the Church from the pressure of public opinion and easy popularity, while fighting with a disloyal curia, problems of pedophilia and homosexuality and his own inner demons and doubts.
Paolo Sorrentino managed to give us a truly disruptive pope: the 20th century has been the time of "superstar" popes who draw crowds and travel the world in contact with the faithful, using their image to spread the faith, build bridges with other beliefs and combat hunger, insecurity and war. It has never been easier to know where the pope is and what he is doing, and we have never seen a papacy so stripped down and almost ashamed of its own wealth. Sorrentino breaks with this and gives us a Pius XIII that we can both hate and admire: he is narcissistic despite hiding himself, and he wants to have a good physical shape and a grandiose appearance, not shying away from resurrecting robes, ceremonies and imperial apparatus, as we haven't seen since John XXIII, in order to impose his authority on the Church. In this series, the (few) masses we see are in Latin, with the celebrant facing away from the assembly, and the pope never leaves Italy. There is an atmosphere of surrealism that can be seen in the way Sorrentino uses oneiric themes such as dream, illusion and hallucination. As the series evolves, however, the director tries to relieve the pressure and give a friendly and sympathetic conclusion to his story, which breaks with what was happening in the initial phase of the series, almost to the point of contradicting himself. Adding to this problem, the series lacks a good sense of time passing: we can't really tell if the story takes place over several years or several months.
The lavish cast is led brilliantly by Jude Law, who perfectly embodies his role and manages to be equally obnoxious and sympathetic. Diane Keaton also surprises and delights us as Sister Mary, a nun who raised Belardo in an orphanage and now acts as his personal secretary, and whom Sorrentino even places as a "power behind the throne" of his pope. Silvio Orlando and Javier Cámara are very good in the roles of two cardinals of great importance: the hypocritical Secretary of State Voiello and the alcoholic and kind Gutierrez, who is also the Papal Ceremoniary. Much less interesting are the appearances of actors like Scott Shepherd or Ludivine Sagnier. Both promised a lot and had good characters (a cardinal who had been in a relationship with the wife of a drug dealer and who appears to be bisexual, and the religious wife of a Swiss Guard who betrays him with a priest and is recruited to seduce the pope), but they're both dropped by somewhat abruptly and unpleasantly, aborting their respective sub-plots.
Technically, the series did wonders with its hefty 47 million euro budget: without the blessing to shoot in the Vatican, the environments were recreated in the studio and are excellent in the amount of detail and choice of props and furniture. The costumes and robes used are rich in detail and could perfectly be used by real prelates and cardinals without any problem. There are still several scenes shot in very good Italian filming locations, and the cinematography is pleasant and never feels televised or reductive. The dialogues and speeches are very well written and intriguing, and the contemporary soundtrack often adds to the surrealism of certain scenes.
This series does not deviate much from these rules and gives us a panorama difficult to imagine: after the death of a popular pope, very dear to everyone (who could well be the current pontiff), the Conclave, despite all the maneuvers of manipulation, chooses a young American cardinal, Lenny Belardo, a protégé of one of the main candidates for the papacy, Cardinal Spencer, Archbishop of New York. Indifferent to everyone's shock (especially the old American Cardinal, who hoped to be elected, and Cardinal Secretary of State Voiello, the face of a manipulative and cynical papal curia), Lenny accepts and takes the name Pius XIII, leading to an unparalleled revolution: preferring not to publicize his image and to maintain as little contact as possible with the faithful, he hides and tries to free the Church from the pressure of public opinion and easy popularity, while fighting with a disloyal curia, problems of pedophilia and homosexuality and his own inner demons and doubts.
Paolo Sorrentino managed to give us a truly disruptive pope: the 20th century has been the time of "superstar" popes who draw crowds and travel the world in contact with the faithful, using their image to spread the faith, build bridges with other beliefs and combat hunger, insecurity and war. It has never been easier to know where the pope is and what he is doing, and we have never seen a papacy so stripped down and almost ashamed of its own wealth. Sorrentino breaks with this and gives us a Pius XIII that we can both hate and admire: he is narcissistic despite hiding himself, and he wants to have a good physical shape and a grandiose appearance, not shying away from resurrecting robes, ceremonies and imperial apparatus, as we haven't seen since John XXIII, in order to impose his authority on the Church. In this series, the (few) masses we see are in Latin, with the celebrant facing away from the assembly, and the pope never leaves Italy. There is an atmosphere of surrealism that can be seen in the way Sorrentino uses oneiric themes such as dream, illusion and hallucination. As the series evolves, however, the director tries to relieve the pressure and give a friendly and sympathetic conclusion to his story, which breaks with what was happening in the initial phase of the series, almost to the point of contradicting himself. Adding to this problem, the series lacks a good sense of time passing: we can't really tell if the story takes place over several years or several months.
The lavish cast is led brilliantly by Jude Law, who perfectly embodies his role and manages to be equally obnoxious and sympathetic. Diane Keaton also surprises and delights us as Sister Mary, a nun who raised Belardo in an orphanage and now acts as his personal secretary, and whom Sorrentino even places as a "power behind the throne" of his pope. Silvio Orlando and Javier Cámara are very good in the roles of two cardinals of great importance: the hypocritical Secretary of State Voiello and the alcoholic and kind Gutierrez, who is also the Papal Ceremoniary. Much less interesting are the appearances of actors like Scott Shepherd or Ludivine Sagnier. Both promised a lot and had good characters (a cardinal who had been in a relationship with the wife of a drug dealer and who appears to be bisexual, and the religious wife of a Swiss Guard who betrays him with a priest and is recruited to seduce the pope), but they're both dropped by somewhat abruptly and unpleasantly, aborting their respective sub-plots.
Technically, the series did wonders with its hefty 47 million euro budget: without the blessing to shoot in the Vatican, the environments were recreated in the studio and are excellent in the amount of detail and choice of props and furniture. The costumes and robes used are rich in detail and could perfectly be used by real prelates and cardinals without any problem. There are still several scenes shot in very good Italian filming locations, and the cinematography is pleasant and never feels televised or reductive. The dialogues and speeches are very well written and intriguing, and the contemporary soundtrack often adds to the surrealism of certain scenes.