Skip to content

Steven Rea's papal picks of the week

There's a rumor going around that some high dignitary from Vatican City is coming to town, and what better way to prepare for the papal madness than to watch a few films about the pope, or cited by the pope, or connected to the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church in some substantial, cinematic way?

"La Strada," said to be a Francis fave.
"La Strada," said to be a Francis fave.Read more
    by Steven Rea | Columnist, Inquirer
    Published 

There's a rumor going around that some high dignitary from Vatican City is coming to town, and what better way to prepare for the papal madness than to watch a few films about the pope, or cited by the pope, or connected to the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church in some substantial, cinematic way?

The Pope's Favorite Films The Philadelphia Film Society programmers are playing three classics said to be on Francis' list of screen gems. Babette's Feast, the Foreign Language Oscar winner from 1988, plays at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday; Rome, Open City, Roberto Rossellini's 1945 neorealist drama about Resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Rome, screens at 7:40 p.m. Wednesday; and La Strada, Federico Fellini's whirlpool of symbolism, autobiography, and myth, and the 1956 winner of the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film, gets its turn Thursday, also at 7:40 p.m. The Prince Theater, 1412 Chestnut, is the venue. Go to http://filmadelphia.org/pope/ for tickets and info.

We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam) Available on Amazon, Netflix, and other screening platforms. Released in 2011, Nanni Moretti's sometimes comic, sometimes poignant, somewhat controversial look at the process by which the College of Cardinals selects its leader, stars Michel Piccoli as Cardinal Melville, chosen to be the new pope after several failed rounds of papal conclave balloting. But at the moment of the public announcement, with the faithful throngs assembled in St. Peter's Square, Melville has a panic attack and flees. On the loose, incognito, in Rome, the good father has to figure out whether he's up to the task for which he has been chosen.

Beautifully staged and filmed, We Have a Pope is more respectful to the institution of the Catholic Church and its leaders than one might expect, coming from the social satirist Moretti. And, going on what Pope Francis told National Geographic in a recent interview, one suspects he may feel some empathy for his fictive counterpart. ("You know how often I've wanted to go walking through the streets of Rome - because in Buenos Aires, I liked to go for a walk in the city.")