Habemus Papam By Nanni Moretti

The Pope is as old as Christianity itself. Yet the fact that the names and faces change doesn’t answer the question “Who is he ?“ The symbolism connected to electing a man into a position that is the closest to God is very clear : it is the idea standing behind him that turns a regular person into an extraordinary one. Papacy is an abstract idea, one of godlike proportions and powers. It resides and reigns over an independent State. All of these prerogatives give the Pope authority over millions of people around the world, despite the fact that they are denied any personal contact. If you are lucky, you get to see him framed by a window or inside the papamobile. Only so you can be sure he exists.

This lack of humanity seems to be the central theme of Italian representations of the Pope on screen. Although Italian cinema views the pontiff, and through him the Church, from different perspectives. The papacy can be funny, as in Il Pap’occhio by Renzo Arbore, or faith can be treated as a very serious matter, as in Nanni Moretti’s La Messa è finita. But it is L’Udienza by Marco Ferreri which tackles the issue of the absurdity and abstractness explicitly. The director shows us a common Italian man who is trying to get a personal audience with the Pope. It is the word ‘personal’ that is closely connected to the word ‘faith’, yet during the course of the film, the connection proves to be almost obsolete. This is not because the protagonist fails to have a personal acquaintance with God, but because God can only be found within himself. In the end, he dies. Just like the human inside the Pope dies after his election.

Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam is different because it offers a personal experience not only of the symbolic Pope but also of the human one. The Italian director portrays a stressed old man who is unable to accept the responsibility that was assigned to him, and thus creates a man the viewer can relate to. Even if the Pope’s image as an ordinary old man is unconventional and has a negative connotation, it seems to be the most appealing one. Nanni Moretti is once again taking the faith personally.

By Ľuboš Bišto