Habemus Papam by Nanni Moretti is an existential fable about a man crippled by doubt [critique]

Nanni Moretti's film returns this Wednesday evening on Arte.

Nanni Moretti does not shoot red bullets at the Church but creates a pleasant film.

Let's reframe right away: we were expecting an anticlerical charge, an iconoclastic film against the Pope and the power of a wavering Church signed by the irreducible transalpine leftist. Habemus papam is none of that. Moretti's film is a little existential fable about the crisis of a man crippled by doubt. The psychoanalysis of a man on the brink of the abyss. “ Should I rush into the abyss? Accept a charge that everyone refuses? Or should I regain my freedom? “. Michael Piccoli as a sovereign almost pontiff avoids pontificating and brings a beautiful freshness to this all-too-human pope. Moretti literally films him on Roman vacation, meeting a psychologist, his wife and actors. A wandering that will make him waver…

Nanni Moretti: “Cinema has no therapeutic role”

The most successful ofHabemus Papam is not there. This is the beginning of the film, the way Moretti sketches the conclave. Reconnecting with the satire of true Italian comedy, it shows the holy of holies as a meeting of old pranksters who play puzzles, organize a volleyball tournament and are like schoolchildren in the playground. When it comes to cinema, it's not necessarily divine (and it's impossible not to think of what a guy like Sorrento with this subject when we see the volleyball games), but the satire and the tender and cowardly humor of Moretti are enough to take pleasure.
By Gaël Golhen