As such, it is not without intent that the opening scenes of the film unfold to a succession of wide-angle shots of the Vatican and the Conclave. This interminable repetitiveness from a mass of people to the cries of an orator confirms a cultural colonialism Christendom is responsible of it clearly reflects the pagan infiltrations to the Christian prayers, turned rituals, that helped spread the new religion, increase its base, establish a hierarchy, thereby metamorphosing what should have been a metaphysical religion into an earthly institution. Should a Christian, or more precisely, a Catholic, go back to the Source, the Scriptures, one need only pray “Our Father”and that is it. Why would a faithful incessantly, monotonously, and meaninglessly recite to a Creator whom the Church teaches is all ears and love for His creation? Why would a faithful invoke so many mediators, when the faithful has an open line with the Creator? It solidifies a parasitic relation between an earthly institution and its mortal members and I insist on this term, mortal, for the Church, in turning the faithfuls to parroting machinists, cares only about their mortal facet. This persistence in prayer bothers me it is a material ritualization of an abstraction. What adds humor to this scene, though it could pass unnoticed, is when the orator recites: “All the saints and the prophets”and the procession to echo in unison: “pray for us”and then the saints’ names are recited again! This is typical in a Catholic or a Catholic-affiliated mass or ceremony.
#Beirut hotel movie banned full#
There are quite a few esoteric numbers in the Christian faith: 3, for obvious reasons, 5 (on average) the number of times one must repeat “Our Father” and “Ave Maria”after repenting, 7, the number of Churches one must visit on the Thursday of the Holy Week, 9, the Neuvaine, and, last, 10 times reciting “Ave Maria” for one part of the Rosary (imagine that a full one will require 50 “Ave Maria”!). For the annoyingly inquisitive, I am almost certain, such questions induce some skepticism. I love such long, focused, sequences (wish I knew the technical term) though they do appear extended, in fact they feel compact, for they carry a lot those static images compel us to think and ask questions in a matter of minutes, that, in a novel for instance, would require hundreds of pages and digressions, and so, I hope to see more of them in current films.Īs anyone who was brought up in the Christian faith or in a Christian environment, at one point, we have certainly asked ourselves the purpose of such repetitions. To assist to this “Saint X, pray for us”for one minute, and then as an alternating echo fading in and out over a journalist’s commentary for around 4 minutes, is captivating and I hope would not elicit a “fhemna” or “uff” from my fellow compadres. This extended scene of the cardinals in procession to the Conclave to elect the Pope is splendidly cinematographic it is one of those techniques that perfectly befits movies. I hope the comical part is universally shared, though it is the apparent futility of such recitals, that presages the succeeding events.
Having said that, the scene that follows the procession of the marching cardinals admonishing, to a succession of saints’ names, to “pray for us”is quite funny and disturbing to me. With this kind of movies the frame of discussion is delicate, not because the subject matter is inaccessible, but because of the context it carries, and all the symbolism it is laden with, tinting each person’s perspective in significantly varying manners. It opens on an atmosphere of expectation appropriately registered in the grandeur of wide-angles. Habemus Papam, latin for “We have a Pope” is Nanni Moretti’s last work and my first encounter with his.