Screenwriter Peter Straughan and the producers had initial conversations about the best ways to draw out the thriller-esque elements of bestselling author Robert Harris’s Conclave. “His novels are so very cinematic,” says Straughan. “He’s brilliant at examining politics in fresh and revealing ways. Conclave is a great political drama. It explores the tensions between idealism — and spirituality — and realpolitik. It’s the age-old story of compromise and the kind of pollution that power can bring with it, battling with integrity and selflessness.”
Conclave takes audiences into a world very few people have ever seen firsthand. “The mechanism behind the election of a pope is among the most closely guarded secrets in the world,” Berger explains. “I was super curious to peek behind those locked doors and find out the details. We can’t know everything, but there are quite a few facts we were able to establish through our research. We feel we got as close to the truth as anyone ever has.”
The film follows Cardinal Lawrence, the dean of the College of Cardinals, as he undertakes his traditional duty of running the conclave. In the midst of political intrigue that will determine the future of the Catholic Church, Lawrence discovers a mystery whose solution could rock the ancient institution to its foundations.
At the same time, Lawrence is experiencing a profound crisis of faith. “It has nothing to do with the election of the new pope,” says Berger, “but complicates it for him. He has stopped believing he’s the right person to be a cardinal. He asked permission to leave Rome and go to a monastery to try to rediscover his faith, but the pope denied his request. He’s riddled with doubt that he must continually overcome. That’s what interested me the most.”
What’s at stake for Lawrence, says the director, is not just who will be the next pope, but his own emotional truth. “Can he still believe in this institution? Can he believe in the future? How can he regain his sense of purpose? Those are questions many people, and not just people of faith, face on an everyday basis.”
According to Ross, she and her House Productions co-founder Juliette Howell were given the first few chapters of the novel to read prior to its publication. “We read it at speed and then hungrily asked for the rest,” she recalls. “With backing from Danny Cohen from Access Entertainment, I put in a bid. I convinced Robert Harris that a more independent approach to the material might benefit it. He had written a brilliant novel in an extraordinary and mostly hidden world. At House, we would build a filmmaking team that found texture and purpose in the adaptation.”
Ross’ track record might have been enough to convince author Harris that she was the right producer but, he says, “She also brought terrific enthusiasm and unwavering determination to the filmmaking process. I never had a reason to doubt her.”
Audiences coming to Conclave can look forward to a sophisticated political thriller set in the sheltered, upper echelon of the Catholic Church, says Berger. “It is, of course, about faith, but the nuts and bolts are pure political thriller. Who’s it going to be? Will they be deserving of it?”
Viewers will also witness the unraveling of a baffling mystery and an engrossing character piece. “We have made what I think is a concise film that takes you into a new world for a gripping and original cinematic ride,” Berger continues. “And if people walk away with a couple of new thoughts, I will be very gratified.”
The film should be a huge pleasure for the audience, according to Ross. “It’s a great story, a thriller with rich characters who are decent, clever men with very relatable flaws. It’s also a story of great resonance — in the grip of possible power, our characters descend, inevitably and sadly, into battle, for themselves rather than for the greater good.”
In the end, Berger says he personally identifies with Lawrence and believes many others will find something inspiring in his journey. “This can be a moment of reflection for anyone thinking of reinventing their life, of finding a new purpose or renewing an old one. That is what Cardinal Lawrence does here. He finds a moment of liberation. He’s gone through a journey and he can put down his burden. That’s the feeling I have at the end of the movie and I hope audiences will find something they recognize in that.”
Bristling with tension and steeped in tradition, Conclave is a gripping thriller with a mystery at its heart. Based on the acclaimed novel by bestselling author Robert Harris (Enigma, An Officer and a Spy) and scripted by Academy Award nominee Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Frank), the film is directed by Academy Award® winner Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front). It follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events – selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy and discovers a secret that could shake the very foundation of the Church.
The seed for the idea
The seed for the idea of the novel was planted while Harris was watching television coverage of the 2013 conclave at which the current Pope Francis was elected. Seeing the faces of the cardinals, it occurred to him that they looked more like politicians than clerics. “I promised myself I would do some research as to how the process works,” he recalls. “It was quickly clear that a conclave had so much dramatic potential.”
As luck would have it, Harris’ Italian publisher was finalizing a book written by the Secretary of State for the Vatican and put the two in touch. “I asked to see some specific locations: the Casa Santa Marta, where the cardinals stay during the conclave, the Sistine Chapel where the voting takes place, and so forth,” says the author. “The procedure for a conclave is laid out in Vatican law and I read every available account of any previous conclave. But the most fun part was inventing the entire College of Cardinals. I created a new cardinal for every place in the world that actually has one.”
Adapting the Novel
Peter Straughan was the ideal screenwriter to adapt the novel for the screen, according to Ross. “I have long admired his work,” she says. “He writes with extraordinary precision, as well as delicacy and poetry. There is such beautiful detail in his characterizations. His adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy gave me absolute confidence he was the perfect writer for this.”
Harris is equally impressed by Straughan’s work. “Peter and I had a happy collaboration,” he says. “He handled the material so brilliantly that I can only say the fates were all aligned.”
Brought up in the Catholic Church, Straughan responded to the novel immediately, notes Ross. “It was helpful that this world, with its rituals and rules, made sense to him. His extraordinary strength in building intrigue and character were crucial to the screenplay, and to the audience buying into a world that holds such fascination and mystique.”
The screenwriter says he had been looking for something to collaborate on with Ross and executive producer Robyn Slovo. “They contacted, asking if I’d like to read Conclave,” he recalls. “They must have remembered my Catholic roots. I read it, I loved it and said yes straight away. Robert is one of those rare novelists who write intelligent, literary novels that also have great, compelling plots. He’s a gift to the screenwriter because he structures his novels so brilliantly, while also creating rich characters and memorable dialogue.”
Straughan and the producers had initial conversations about the best ways to draw out the thriller-esque elements of the story for the screen. “It was much easier than usual because Robert’s novels are so very cinematic,” he says. “He is brilliant at examining politics in fresh and revealing ways, and first and foremost, Conclave is a great political drama. It explores the tensions between idealism — and spirituality — and realpolitik. It’s the age-old story of compromise and the kind of pollution that power can bring with it, battling with integrity and selflessness. And all that is situated in a fascinating world that is usually hidden from us. But perhaps most of all I loved the kind of quiet audacity with which he goes into this most conservative of worlds and sets up a startlingly radical twist.”
From Page to Screen
Director Berger joined the project after the first draft was delivered. “Tessa put together a great team to collaborate on the film,” says the director. “Peter had already written a draft that I really enjoyed. Honestly, I think I’ve read every screenplay he has ever written and just devoured each of them.”
Ross says she had also been a fan of Berger’s for some time. “In particular, I think his direction of ‘Patrick Melrose’ is one of the most extraordinary pieces of recent television. His drive and his hunger for excellence quickly made it clear how lucky we were to have him. Edward is extremely clever, hard-working, and passionate. He jumped in immediately, working with Peter on the script, with our chief operating officer Zoe Edwards on the budget, and finding his department heads, with Nina Gold on the casting. He was relentless, brave and determined.”
Berger’s sensibility and attention to detail were crucial to the making of this film, says Michael Jackman, who produced for FilmNation Entertainment and was on set in Italy. “He had a very specific vision and stuck closely to it. Everything he planned to do just worked. There is a gorgeous, impressionistic image of an actor sitting alone in the Sistine Chapel that just appears to be a moment out of time and it proved to be so important to the film. That’s from the mind of Edward Berger. I merely had to take a leap of faith in him to trust and he always came through.”
Tessa Ross brought the film to Glen Basner at FilmNation Entertainment as a script with Berger attached to direct, and the company immediately boarded to finance and co-produce the feature. FilmNation then joined forces with Indian Paintbrush to co-produce and co-finance with Executive Producer Steven Rales.
Eight of Harris’ novels have previously been brought to the big screen, including Enigma and An Officer and a Spy. In Conclave, Harris offers a glimpse of a world full of political intrigue and competing interests, with different parties and factions all trying to outdo each other. “It’s a power game and Robert is an expert at creating characters in a world of power struggles,” notes Berger. “It’s a big drama that takes place on a global stage, and he captured that as well as the character of the participants.”
Straughan, he says, took what was in the book and made it even more cinematic. “The best thing about Peter’s work is that there is not only great dialogue. There’s not only a great story in a setting we know nothing about. He always has another layer. There’s something underneath the main story that I would call a soul.”
As more than 100 high-ranking clergymen converge on the Vatican, some have already begun lobbying their peers for votes. To play some of the most influential men in the Catholic Church, Berger assembled an international cast of powerhouse actors.
To play the conflicted Cardinal Lawrence, Berger selected two-time Oscar® nominee Ralph Fiennes. “His was the first name we came up with,” says the director. “As an actor, he’s so honest, earnest and full of depth. Most crucially, Ralph is able to portray a character’s inner life as well as or better than any actor I can think of. Lawrence is a careful, thoughtful man who doesn’t always say what he feels, so Ralph doesn’t have the most lines. Instead, other people talk, he listens and it all takes place behind his eyes. He invites the audience into his emotional and spiritual confusion. That’s what makes him so compelling to watch.”
For Fiennes, there was so much about the project that intrigued him. “First, I love Peter Straughan’s screenwriting,” he says. “Tessa Ross, of course, is a great producer with excellent taste in films. I had just seen All Quiet on the Western Front and thought it was fantastic. So I was beyond excited at the prospect of working with Edward.”
The script, he says, was a great read. “It is full of manipulative, rather dark figures doing dubious things. There’s ambition and some corruption, but it isn’t just about the political machinations. For Lawrence especially, it’s about who is going to be the right spiritual leader.”
The actor was also irresistibly drawn to the contradictions of the character. “After a lifetime spent working toward this moment, Lawrence is now the reluctant manager of a conclave rife with political tension,” he explains. “Instead of being in the monastery he aspires to, he is at the center of controversy. As a man of spiritual integrity, the challenges he faces to make sure the election proceeds ethically, morally and transparently are inherently dramatic.”
Making the details as accurate as possible was a priority for Fiennes. In the book, the character played by Fiennes is an Italian called Lomeli. Since Fiennes is English and the movie is mostly in English, Berger decided to make the character English as well. “My first concern was, are there actually any English Cardinals?” the actor says. “We learned that there in fact are three, so it’s quite plausible. But because it is set in Italy, I insisted on speaking Italian when Lawrence addresses the conclave. And when Lawrence goes head-to-head with the Venetian cardinal, his chief antagonist, he can hold his own in Italian.”
The details of the conclave are as authentic as possible, he adds, thanks to the extensive research done by writers Harris and Straughan. “Of course, there are many secrets we had no access to, so we have taken poetic license where we had to, but the spirit is always accurate. I got obsessed by small things like what they wear when they have dinner.”
Most importantly, he says, Straughan hasn’t simplified anything, including Lawrence’s own contradictions. “It’s the sort of film I like to see,” he says. “All of the characters have their specific priorities and motivations, so it’s very rich. Peter’s development of the novel’s characters is beautifully judged and the parts are all well-written enough to have attracted an incredible cast.”
Stanley Tucci plays Lawrence’s close friend and ally, the American Cardinal Bellini. He is the de facto leader of the progressive faction within the College of Cardinals and one of the major candidates for the next papacy.
Audiences should watch the film carefully, says Tucci, because there is a plot twist around many a corner. “There are a lot of surprises in this film. As a director myself, I just thought, all these amazing people. All these dazzling sets. This incredible story. How can you not be excited to tell it?”
John Lithgow plays one of the strongest competitors for the papacy, the Canadian Cardinal Tremblay, who wields his affable charm as a weapon. Perhaps the leading conservative candidate, he is cunning, ambitious and very much in the running. “After I got the script, Edward and I exchanged a couple of emails,” the actor recalls. “Then we had a wonderful, long phone conversation. Tremblay is a complicated character — all of the characters are complicated — and a treat to play.”
The fact that the cast consists largely of men is, of course, no coincidence, notes Berger. “The Catholic Church is one of the oldest patriarchies in the world. Women are basically sidelined and their voices aren’t heard. Most of our characters, including Lawrence, don’t question that much. But by the end of the movie, we begin to question. Why can’t it be open to other voices?”
One of those voices in the film is Sister Agnes, the nun in charge of running the Casa Santa Marta, where all the cardinals must live during the conclave. Isabella Rossellini, who plays the steely but deferential Agnes, says she found the role intriguing in part because her character is the only woman with any authority in this sea of men. “But it is her role to remain silent, to not disagree with the cardinals,” points out the acclaimed actress. “In her silence, though, there is a lot of information and a lot of presence. And I loved that.”
Women don’t have a strong public role in the governance of the Church, Rossellini acknowledges, and are expected to be subservient to priests. But, she notes, “As Agnes says in the film, ‘God has nevertheless given us eyes and ears.’ That is my favorite line in the script. They do see, they do hear, they have opinions and their presence is important.”
Conclave was shot in the city of Rome at the legendary Cinecittà studios. Founded in 1937 with the help of Benito Mussolini to support the Italian film industry, it was partially destroyed by Allied bombs during World War II. Rebuilt by the 1950s, it became one of Europe’s premiere studios and the largest studio on the continent.
Creating the sets meant to reflect what is hidden behind the closed doors of the Vatican required research, imagination and ingenuity, says Berger. “You have ancient architecture, historic architecture and modern architecture in the same place. Finding those contrasts was key, so that you don’t get tired of seeing ecclesiastical architecture all the time. Our production designer Suzie Davies created unforgettable sets. She is a master.”
Davies was fascinated by the juxtaposition of modern and traditional in Rome. Perhaps the most ambitious set was the famed Sistine Chapel, where the voting takes place. “Amazingly, there was an existing set in storage at Cinecittà,” she reveals, “which we were able to restore using the same painters who put it together in the first place.”
Berger has a very strong visual sense, and wanted to explore two opposing ideas in terms of design, according to Davies. “He envisioned a balance of light and dark, male and female, traditional and contemporary. Rome and the Vatican are beautiful, traditional, ornate, gilded and ancient. But we also incorporated the very symmetrical, sharp-edged designs of the fascist era in Italy. The contrast between them is visually arresting.”
Visually, Berger hoped to create a unique feeling for Conclave, something different from other movies filmed in church settings. “Our cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine’s images and his intuitive way of dealing with the characters was a wonderful gift to steer away from anything we’ve seen before.”
Every shot had to have its own specific meaning, he says. “Generally I like when the shots hurt a bit, when they are as precise as razors. We prepared for shooting so meticulously that it was as if we had edited the film even before shooting it.”
EDWARD BERGER
Edward Berger was Oscar®-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for his modern retelling of the 1930 German classic All Quiet on the Western Front, which he also directed and produced. The film won seven BAFTAs and four Academy Awards®, including an Oscar® for Berger for Best International Feature Film, en route to becoming one of the most honored international films ever.
Previously, Berger directed all five episodes of Showtime’s limited series “Patrick Melrose,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Hugo Weaving. The show won four BAFTAs (including Berger’s BAFTA for Best Limited Series) and was nominated for five Emmy Awards, including Best Limited Series and Best Directing, in addition to a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
Up next for the filmmaker is the mystery The Ballad of a Small Player, starring Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton and Fala Chen. The film is currently in production.
Berger graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1994 with a degree in directing. He gained his first professional experience working for the U.S. independent production company Good Machine, including working on films helmed by Ang Lee and Todd Haynes.
Berger’s film Jack was invited into the competition of the Berlin International Film Festival and nominated in three categories for the German Academy Award (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay). It went on to win the German Academy Award in Silver for Best Picture, as well as Best Director and Best Picture at the German Directors Guild Awards.
In 2015 Berger’s eight-part television series “Deutschland 83” premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and aired to rave reviews on Sundance TV as the first German television show ever to be released in the U.S. It won an International Emmy, the Peabody Award, the Goldene Kamera and the award for Best International Drama Series at the renowned Séries Mania Festival in Paris. It also sold to Canal+ in France and Channel 4 in England, as well as to Scandinavia, Russia and many other territories around the world.
PETER STRAUGHAN
Peter Straughan is a critically acclaimed screenwriter whose BAFTA award-winning, Oscar®-nominated film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (co-written by Bridget O’Connor) featured an all-star cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch. Straughan’s Hilary Mantel adaptation Wolf Hall (BAFTA and Golden Globe winner) aired on BBC television and its forthcoming sequel, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, is currently in production. His next project, Folio, examines the story behind a collection of Shakespeare’s works that were assembled seven years after his death.
Straughan first became a sought-after screenwriter when he penned the screenplay for Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare at Goats, an adaptation of Jon Ronson’s book that starred George Clooney. He went on to write John Madden’s The Debt, starring Helen Mirren, and Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank, starring Michael Fassbender. Straughan’s other adaptations include Our Brand Is Crisis, starring Sandra Bullock, and The Goldfinch, directed by John Crowley.
