/460/ The Profane Appeal of Sacred Authority

On Conclave. In our final episode of the year, we debate Edgar Berger's new film about a Papal election, featuring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci as Cardinals and Isabella Rossellini as a nun. Is the film about an alien, abstruse process – the conclave – or is it about something familiar and earthly? Is the film about the sacred or the profane? About temporal or holy power? What does it say about process and neutrality, in times of lawfare and contested elections? ⁠Why is there so much film and TV about the Pope? What is it that appeals today about Papal authority? The film features a good liberal, a corrupt moderate, a nasty reactionary, a tainted idpol candiate (a homophobic African) – do these politics matter? Why so crude? ⁠Is it mere Oscar bait?

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