For this week's main podcast review, I am joined by Sara Clements, Josh Parham, Alyssa Christian, Dan Bayer & Tom O'Brien to review and discuss Edward Berger's latest film "Conclave," starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz, Sergio Castellitto & Isabella Rossellini. Following up his Academy Award-winning film, "All Quiet On The Western Front," Edward Berger takes us behind the closed doors of the Vatican into the election process for a new Pope in this tight, dramatic thriller with all kinds of twists and turns with one hell of a memorable final reveal. What did we think of it? Please tune in as we discuss the writing, performances, direction, score, cinematography, awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy!

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"Conclave"

What Is This Episode - Top of Show
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CONCLAVE OSCARS PROFILE:
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Spoiler-Free Review:
Background/Viewing Experiences/Review Scores - 2:26
Writer/Director/Producers and Book vs Film - 8:01
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Fiennes for Best Actor? - 12:33
Did Isabella Rossalini  Earn a Nom? - 14:26
Tucci, Lithgow, and the Rest of the Cast- 16:10
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Best Score So Far - 19:32
Production Design/Values - 21:48
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How Many Noms + The Official MMO Noms Total Over/Under - 24:32
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SPOILER WARNING- 32:30
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Spoiler-Filled Review: 
Conclave and Election Anxieties - 33:25
Welp, Let’s Talk About That Finale - 34:45
Benitez Speaks - 42:52
When Lawrence Went For John - 48:42
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FINAL GRADES - 1:01:30
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WHAT’S NEXT/LEAVE US 5 STARS/WORDS OF WISDOM - 1:05:53

Conclave Oscars Profile - When Lawrence Went For John - Ep 470

Director Edward Berger’s sensibility and attention to detail were crucial to the making of this film, says producer Michael Jackman, who was on set in Italy: “Edward had a very specific vision and stuck closely to it. Everything he planned to do just worked. There is a gorgeous, impressionistic image of an actor sitting alone in the Sistine Chapel that just appears to be a moment out of time and it proved to be so important to the film. That’s from the mind of Edward Berger. I merely had to take a leap of faith in him to trust and he always came through.”

Following the screening, Deadline’s chief film critic Pete Hammond, who can also be seen on PBS SoCal's Must See Movies, moderates a pre-recorded Q&A with award-winning director Edward Berger.

Conclave Q&A

"Conclave" had its world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival, where it received positive reviews for its writing, direction, performances, score, editing, and cinematography. Academy Award-nominated Director Edward Berger, screenwriter Peter Straughan, editor Nick Emerson, and Academy Award-winning composer Volker Bertelmann were all kind enough to spend some time with us talking about their Vatican-set political thriller based on Robert Harris's novel. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now playing in theaters from Focus Features and is up for your consideration at this year's Academy Awards in all eligible categories. Thank you, and enjoy!

Check out more on NextBestPicture.com

Please subscribe on...

Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw

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A Behind The Scenes Look At "Conclave"

Die alten Hintern in blaue Jeans gepackt isolieren sich Dennis und Tobit im Podcaststudio, als würden sie ein Konklave abhalten. Das Superwahljahr 2024 endet erst mit der Wahl eines neuen Papstes! Zur Auswahl stehen eine Seniorin namens Thelma, die Abzocker heimsucht, ein Skater-YouTuber (der ebenfalls eine süße Omi kennt), ein Möchtegern-Willy Wonka, der die USA bald verlassen muss, und ein Schulmädchen, das zu lange auf Wattpad war. Das ist der Zeitgeist der Globalpolitik... Und Polizeigewalt ist auch doof!!


191: Wird Diddy Kong der neue Papst?

You wait for ages for a film about a group of people sequestered in a room, questioning each other, keeping secrets, and repeatedly voting, and two come along at once. But while Juror #2's protagonist wrestled with his conscience, Conclave's Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, has little trouble consistently acting out of principle - sadly, many of his colleagues vying for the Catholic Church's vacant papacy don't share his clarity.

Conclave is a marvellously entertaining mystery and thriller, a chamber play in which Fiennes' performance is a complex and deeply felt standout amongst a number of engaging, if less rich, star turns from Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. We discuss whether the film is an advert for the Church, how it engages with religion, the striking visual design, liberalism vs. conservatism, representations of gender and nationality... and that magnificent twist. Spoilers within!

Recorded on 1st December 2024.

434 - Conclave

Recorded live at our In Conversation members event in November 2024, director Edward Berger speaks to Susanna White on his latest film Conclave.

(Image credit: Christopher Andreou)

In Conversation: Edward Berger and Susanna White on Conclave

The guys discuss the film adaptation, CONCLAVE, based on the 2016 novel by Richard Harris.
… 
The Pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.
… 
The film adaptation was directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), written by Peter Straughan, and stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Gucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. The film has been nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Berger), Best Actor (Fiennes), Best Supporting Actor (Rossellini), Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and most importantly (for our purposes) Best Adapted Screenplay (Straughan). 
… 
Topics of discussion include the minor differences in the film adaptation, Peter Straughan’s career in adaptation, the role of the Pope in the Catholic Church, the controversial ending and its potential mismanagement, and whether or not the term “papacy” sounds sexual. 
…
(0:00) From the book
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(1:17) Fast facts, recap, trivia
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(15:56) A word from our sponsor
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(16:52) Studio pitch & novel breakdown
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(33:29) Trailer
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(35:53) Learn you something, differences from the book
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(1:30:11) Coming up next, and outro
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Coming up next: NICKEL BOYS
The Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead gets a big-screen adaptation from RaMell Ross (director of the documentary Hale County This Morning This Evening) that has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. It has been nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes).
Stay tuned for that episode!
…
If you would like to get in contact with us about anything regarding the show, feel free to shoot us an e-mail: littolens@gmail.com
…
Or reach out on social media:
twitter.com/littolens
instagram.com/littolens

87. CONCLAVE

From A24 through Warner Bros, we go studio by film studio and discuss their known film slates and focus on the undated films that could vie for Film Festival love.

A24: Eddington, Highest 2 Lowest, The Entertainment System Is Down, etc - 2:21 
Amazon/MGM: After the Hunt, Madden, Hedda - 16:12 
Apple Original Films: The Lost Bus, F1 - 18:11 
Bleecker Street & Briarcliff: The Wedding Banquet, Sneaks, etc - 20:26  
Disney: Deliver Me From Nowhere, The Roses, Is This Thing On? Etc - 21:38 
Greenwich Entertainment & Janus: Diane Warren: Relentless, Peter Hujar’s Day, etc - 32:18 
IFC, Lionsgate, Magnolia: The Luckiest Man In America, Good Fortune, 40 Acres - 33:45 
MUBI: Father Mother Sister Brother from Jim Jarmusch - 36:28 
Neon: Sentimental Value from Joachim Trier, Alpha from Julia Ducournau, etc - 38:25 

Netflix: Wake Up Dead Man, GDT’s Frankenstein, Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Edward Berger’s The Ballad of a Small Player, Train Dreams, etc - 41:02

Paramount: What’s their top priority? Plus, some recent history - 53:34 
Sony: Blue Moon, Eleanor the Great, East of Wall, etc - 56:07 
Universal: The Phoenician Scheme details, Hamnet, Anemone, etc - 1:02:09
WB: The Bride! + Sinners first reax and Superman Cinemacon reactions - 1:08:17 

NO DISTRIBUTION YET: Sundance Hits like Kiss of the Spider Woman, SXSW hits like The Rivals of Amziah King, Rosemead w/ Lucy Liu, At The Sea w/ Amy Adams, Sydney Sweeny as Christie Martin, The History of Sound + Greta Lee, Willem Dafoe, & Brendan Fraser vehicles - 1:11:34

OUTRO: We’ll end our Year In Preview Series with the Cannes Lineup reactions and then our 100% Accurate Predictions coming up next! https://linktr.ee/mikemikeandoscar

Studio by Studio Film Slates From A24 To WB, Chloe, Denzel & Sandler in play -  YIP3, ORC 4/8/2025

"Ballad Of A Small Player" is a British psychological thriller directed by Edward Berger and written by Rowan Joffé, adapted from Lawrence Osborne's 2014 novel of the same name. The film stars Academy Award-nominee Colin Farrell as Lord Doyle, a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau, where he spends his nights playing baccarat. As his debts spiral out of control, Doyle finds an unlikely lifeline in Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a casino hostess who holds secrets of her own. The film had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival before continuing its run at TIFF, where it received strong acclaim for its flashy direction, bombastic score, and Farrell's high-wire committed performance. Farrell, Chen, and Berger were all kind enough to spend time speaking with us about their work and experiences making the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now available to stream on Netflix. Thank you, and enjoy!

Check out more on NextBestPicture.com

Please subscribe on...

Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw

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Interviews With "Ballad Of A Small Player" Stars Colin Farrell, Fala Chen & Director Edward Berger

Available on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods.

The Directors UK Podcast allows the listener to attend our member events with top directors. Hear what directors have to say when they speak to a room of their peers, and gain exclusive insight into their creative process.

Directors UK is the professional association for UK screen directors. With over 8,500 members, we represent directors’ rights and concerns, promote excellence in the craft of direction and champion change to the current landscape to create an equal opportunity industry for all.

A podcast by NextBestPicture.com that reviews the latest film releases and discusses various topics within the world of film and the awards race.

A podcast about books and their film adaptations. It's a safe place for those who really did like the movie better than the book.

MMO is talk radio for movie fans with weekly news shows, reviews, previews, and special guests. We celebrate the Oscars by making awards season year round, without the stuffiness. If you love cinema, if you love showbiz, welcome home.

"I have this romantic idea of the movies as a conjunction of place, people and experiences, all different for each of us, a context in which individual and separate beings try to commune, where the individual experience overlaps with the communal and where that overlapping is demarcated by how we measure the differing responses between ourselves and the rest of the audience: do they laugh when we don’t (and what does that mean?); are they moved when we feel like laughing (and what does that say about me or the others) etc. The idea behind this podcast is to satiate the urge I sometimes have when I see a movie alone – to eavesdrop on what others say. What do they think? How does their experience compare to mine? Snippets are overhead as one leaves the cinema and are often food for thought. A longer snippet of such an experience is what I hope to provide: it’s two friends chatting immediately after a movie. It’s unrehearsed, meandering, slightly convoluted, certainly enthusiastic, and well informed, if not necessarily on all aspects a particular work gives rise to, certainly in terms of knowledge of cinema in general and considerable experience of watching different types of movies and watching movies in different types of ways. It’s not a review. It’s a conversation." - José Arroyo.

"I just like the sound of my own voice." - Michael Glass.

Das "Must Listening" für alle Fans von Filmen, Serien und allem anderen Gedöns. Wir verpacken das Ganze mit einer Menge Humor. Also schaltet ein, egal ob Filmnoob oder Filmnerd!

New tracks tagged #edward berger