"The Pope's Succession", a novel and interesting religious film

Kaleigh 2022-04-21 08:01:04

The movie to watch this week is "The Pope's Succession."

As the name suggests, this movie is about the Pope's change of office, and it sounds serious and old-fashioned, but after watching it you will find that the movie is new and interesting, at least for me.

I rarely watch religious-themed movies, but I have seen two in my memory, but I can't remember the names. One is about the history of Japan's persecution of missionaries in the Edo period, and praised the missionaries' firmness in their faith; Based on true events.

He was educated in atheism as a child, and he lacked sufficient understanding of religion and did not have much goodwill, believing that religion was a tool used by the ruling class to numb people's minds. As far as I know, religion has always felt to me as a mysterious giant. The priests dressed in gorgeous and solemn robes preached in the church full of murals, conveying the truth, goodness and beauty to the devout believers. Religion gives people a sustenance for their thoughts, but also brings heavy disaster and pain. From the medieval cross crusade to robbery in the guise of religion, to the connivance of priests to sexually abuse young children in modern times, etc., the crimes committed are indescribable. .

The film shows a lesser-known side of religion, especially the Pope's transition. I seldom thought about how the Pope would produce a successor before, but after watching the movie, I realized that, similar to most political parties, cardinals from all over the world, on behalf of all believers, gathered in the Vatican for closed elections, filled in the ballots, and voted one by one. the next Pope. During the election process, the sense of formality was full. All the representatives wore red and black vests, and they came forward to hand in their ballots one by one. A small ball would roll off each time a ballot was sung. The votes were counted by threading a red thread on the ballot paper with pins. After the Pope is elected, a white smoke will be lit to inform the outside world, and then the Pope will take the stage to address the world, and the entire electoral process is complete.

After talking about the novel, let's talk about the interesting. There are two most interesting scenes. One is two distinguished Catholic leaders eating pizza in the Sistine Chapel. The old Pope prayed endlessly before the meal, and the new Pope hurriedly picked up the pizza and had to put it down. ; There is another point at the end of the film, these two big guys drink beer and watch the World Cup together. It happens that their respective national teams are competing for the championship. When their own team scores a goal, they are proud, and when they lose, they blame each other. Two ordinary elderly fans. One is conservative and the other is progressive, with opposing ideas, different hobbies, and even completely different eating habits. When two people eat pizza, watch football games, and dance tango together, it is very interesting.

If there is any deficiency, it is that the portrayal of the characters is a bit masked. The old Pope is a typical conservative, aloof, not close to the crowd, and conservative in thinking; while the new Pope is portrayed as a perfect progressive image. In the second half of the film, his life is fully described. When he was young, he gave up love for his faith. When the Argentine military government persecuted religious people, he worked hard to protect the pastor. He took the initiative to walk into the crowd when preaching, and gave speeches in a way that believers liked. He was committed to safeguarding the interests of the poor. He usually dresses casually, and likes football, tango, and the Beatles. Become a perfect image of firm belief, progressive thinking, simple life and approachable. Maybe the director is progressive, or maybe the new pope is still in place.

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Extended Reading
  • Deonte 2022-04-22 07:01:32

    @SGIFF. The quality of TV and movies like Netflix is ​​really bad, and the way of shooting a lot of face-to-face close-up documentaries seems very deliberate. The dialogue between a traditionalist and a liberal pope could have been very profound from the religious level to reality, but it turned out to be a self-climax of the leftists, which was quite disappointing. I can only watch the two old dramas.

  • Brittany 2022-04-22 07:01:32

    #SGIFF2019# is a very exciting old drama. It was sustained by the dialogue between the two of them almost throughout the whole process. The biography of the Pope is not boring at all, with golden sentences and laughs everywhere.

The Two Popes quotes

  • Pope Benedict: A Church that marries the spirit of the age...

    Pope Francis: Yes, ..will be widowed in the next.

  • Pope Benedict: My doctor gave it to me. He said,You are in good shape for 86 but very bad shape for a human being. I believe this was a joke.