Film Shapes

Conclave (or Knives Out in Vatican City ) is a cracking religio-political thriller full of meaty performances and an Oscar-winning script by Peter Straughan that winkles just enough out to leave the audience with some work to do. Straughan has some excellent work on his resume ( Frank , Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , etc), so throwing him together with director Edward Berger ( All Quiet on the Western Front ), and heavyweights like Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow, was a recipe for success.  The start is also an ending. The pope has passed away  and the high-ranking priests are gathering to grieve and plan the succession. Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, and as Dean of the College of Cardinals, it's up to him to organise the conclave, the meeting to elect the new pope.  I'll say now, one of the positives of the film is that there's not too much jargon, so it isn't completely baffling for us atheists. It actually plays a pretty straight ba...

Here's a taut Roman police thriller from director, Lyda Patitucci, her feature debut. Isabella Ragonese stars as Vera, a damaged undercover cop embedded within a Serbian gang. We're introduced to her as she drives her 'colleagues' to a meeting where a nasty piece of business occurs, followed later that night by a confrontation with an ex-lover and a drunken tryst with a barman. Frantic, destructive events like these seem to be about par for Vera. Her stint with the gang comes under threat when a couple of extra bodies join for an armoured car job and one of them turns out to be her younger brother, Bruno (Andrea Arcangeli). Cue a confrontation at their objectionable father's place and a plan of sorts is arranged to keep them both safe. Unfortunately, Bruno has struggles of his own in that his angelic young daughter, Marta (Carolina Michelangeli) needs extracting from her dangerously alcoholic mother, so cash is required to ferry her away.  This is quite a brutal fil...