Nanni Moretti
Habemus Papam

The Vatican World Seen Through the Eyes of an Atheist. The Search for One's Inner Self. A Journey Towards Awareness of One's Limits: there are many ways to describe the plot of Nanni Moretti's latest film, "Habemus Papam", and in the end, they are all connected like a puzzle of feelings and life experiences.

"When a Pope dies, another is made" is perhaps the most famous saying in the world: and that's exactly how Moretti's story begins, with the death of a Pope and the election of the next one, accompanied by evocative scenes of St. Peter's Square crowded with faithful waiting, the mass media searching for the tiniest detail to report exclusively, and the anxiety and anguish of the bishops gathered in the Conclave inside the Sistine Chapel (completely reconstructed at Cinecittà, as well as the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, but the perfection of these constructions, combined with skillful editing, give an exceptional realism and make us feel as if we are truly in the Vatican).

Everything seems perfect, after a few black smokes here comes the white one, the people rejoice, the world awaits anxiously for the new successor of Peter to appear from the main balcony. But no, something goes wrong, the chosen one can't announce himself to the world, he remains seated, agonized, crying out his despair. "I can't do it!" he shouts, and runs away, chased by his weaknesses. 

An unbelieving psychoanalyst is called to help the newly elected, namely Nanni Moretti, who, extraordinarily in this film really manages to make people laugh, is funny and (heaven open!) acts well too. Throughout the film, his presence oscillates between the ironic and the sarcastic, between veiled criticism and mocking. His atheist eyes do not perceive the bishops' anxiety, the anxiety of having a Pope who refuses contact with the outside world and with his faithful.

He organizes card games, talks about the psychiatric drugs that clerics take, volleyball tournaments (the slow-motion scenes of the various games in the courtyard are memorable) while the new Pope continues his search for himself, wandering through a wonderful Rome that does not recognize him, attending sessions with other psychoanalysts (an unnecessary and almost annoying Margherita Buy) trying to understand what his true ambitions are and what things he has renounced in his life in the name of God and the Church, trying to go back in time to rediscover his true childhood passion, that of becoming an actor.  

The film is already receiving early criticism from Vatican circles, unjust criticisms, because in this film Nanni Moretti makes extremely human those we think are austere beings with uncontrolled severity: bishops, priests, nuns, the Pope himself, Swiss guards, are presented as ordinary people with their anxieties, their weaknesses, their vanities, their passions. They are all put in a huge cauldron where each reacts according to their conscience and impulses: characteristics rarely associated with the "inhabitants" of the Vatican in cinema and theater.

A film of simple beauty, epically supported by a wonderful Michael Piccoli, extraordinary in every scene, every expression, every movement: nearly moving is the scene where he walks on Via della Conciliazione, enraptured by the wonderful "Todo Cambia" by Mercedes Sosa, while inside the Vatican walls, the bishops dance and clap.

And there's even time for a criticism of today's ecclesiastical authorities, when in the finale, the new Pope is forced to confront the world but above all his limits: "Today the Church needs a guide that brings change, renewal, that knows how to welcome and love everyone...and that guide is not me...". An incisive, albeit veiled, slap, which nevertheless does not hit as one might expect: after all, it doesn't matter, it's not a film about the Vatican, it's a film about human beings.