When the Oscar nominations were announced in January, it seemed clear that the winning film would leave the two most nominated: ‘Emilia Perez’ (13 nominations) or ‘The Brutalist’ (10 nominations). Almost all bets pointed to the second, with the Jacques Audiard tape as a safe winner in the category of best international film. The victory in the Golden Globes of the two films further endorsed that feeling.
However, in just one month many things have happened: the past has been thrown over Karla Sofía Gascón with the weight of a brutalist mamotreto and the present Zionist has made the historical discourse of the Brady Corbet movie unfriendly. The great beneficiary has been ‘Anora’, which has not discreetly stopped winning awards in recent weeks. Actually, it doesn’t matter a bit: the three are great. Want the one who wins, all the awards that give them deserve.
The problem is that there is a threat growing on the horizon. On February 10, a misfortune of biblical dimensions occurred: the mediocre ‘conclave’ triumphed in the BAFTA competing against the three films mentioned. Although it is true that nationality- it was the only British production of the five nominees- could have played in their favor, the forecasts began to stagger like the credibility of Gascón apologizing for their messages. For more inri, a few days ago the tragedy was reproduced: ‘Conclave’ repeated triumph again in the Actors Union Awards. Will you surprise on Sunday, the Lord’s Day?
‘Conclave’ is a bit ‘the discourse of this year’ (does anyone remember her?). An effective entertainment, well interpreted and with a very measured dramatic tension, very correct, academicist, but quite limited from an aesthetic, narrative or dramatic point of view, especially if we compare it with its three rivals in the Oscars. The German Edward Berger (‘Without novelty in the front’) handles an ampulous staging (those aerial planes with all the cardinals with their white umbrellas) to dress a script with more jirs than a Franciscan sayo. A lot of pomp for so little substance.
The film is nothing more than a Palaciega intrigue, benefited by a great cast (special mention for Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini) and very striking Vatican scenarios, but harmed by a soundtrack that underlines instead of enriching, a simplom speech and a final effect that there is where to take it, more laughible than surprising. It’s like saying Mass in Latin: it doesn’t matter what you say, it sounds very nice, solemn and deep.
