We Have a Dad!, directed by Nanni Moretti, 2011 (two Cannes nominations for Palme d'Or and Michelle Piccoli for Best Actor).
Lately, I have more and more often happened that I am starting to watch a movie and suddenly something stops, throws, then remembers and decides to watch. That's what happened with this movie. I dared to watch it with great enthusiasm, inspired by high grades and good reviews of my friends - film lovers, from the first and even from the beginning.
The second time I did not go, today I decided to finish what I started. The film, in general, is very good - such an unconventional approach to the institution of the papacy and to religion in general, as well as to its ministers, who turn out to be just people with all their weaknesses and problems.
The old pope has died, the conclave is going to choose a new one, the modest and smiling Cardinal Melville is chosen with a large preponderance, the people are jubilant in anticipation of the papal blessing, a cardinal comes to the famous balcony in the Vatican, who must introduce the new pope to the people, but suddenly at the last moment the new pope passes and cannot come out to the people. The ceremony is postponed, the famous psychoanalyst is invited to the dad, however, in the process it turns out that he is actually an atheist, it is too late to change something (he is played by the director himself), but he is not able to help. The father is taken to another psychoanalyst - as it turns out, this is the wife of the first. And after the session, he just runs away from the attendants and goes to wander around Rome. Since none of the cardinals and the psychoanalyst himself are released, he has no choice but to read the Bible, since there are no other books in his room, he plays cards and organizes a volleyball tournament for the elderly cardinals. The press agent (Jerzy Shtour) lies and rushes around, trying to first find and then reason with the Pope himself and calm both the cardinals and the people, imitating the presence of the Pope, but everything is in vain. What about Dad? Here we see not the pontiff, but just a very old man, a failed actor in the past (it was his youthful dream, and not the holy throne), who increasingly realizes that this burden is completely beyond his power. And finally, when everyone had calmed down and decided that everything was going well, he found strength and announced it all from the same balcony to the whole people. . .
Written on 04.04.2014