After the Pope dies, a cardinal finds himself embroiled in intrigue in Director Edward Berger’s conspiracy thriller, Conclave.
Berger’s film finds a Cardinal named Lawrence tasked with leading one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope. Surrounded by powerful religious leaders in the halls of the Vatican, he soon uncovers a trail of deep secrets that could shake the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Church.
On November 17, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Berger discussed the making of Conclave during a Q&A moderated by Director Jay Roach (Bombshell). He previously spoke about the film with following the New York screening moderated by Director Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher) on November 10.
During the Los Angeles conversation, Berger spoke about how he shot the film in the famed Sistine Chapel and other iconic locations in Rome.
“We really tried to be thoughtful of where to put the camera. We spent a really long time location scouting because it wasn’t easy to find all these bits. We shot all over Rome in many different places. The Catholic architecture tries to make you feel small by being very vast and you’re this tiny, insignificant person, so obviously that had to be a part of it. But the story is so much told through [Conclave star] Ralph’s [Fiennes] eyes and ears and so it always felt whenever we moved the camera to a new spot it had a real purpose to move. Every cut needed to have a real purpose. [Conclave star] Stanley [Tucci] references a chess game in the beginning he says, ‘Can I have this chess board?’ In a way the movie was like a chess board to me. In the Sistine Chapel for example, he’s got to look at John Lithgow over there and I knew I needed one shot there. He looks over there and I need one shot there, but I need one shot here to keep into his brain. I did like seven shots on Ralph when I did like one on Stanley. So, it just evolved naturally. I did about eight weeks of shot listing with the cinematographer and storyboarding the scenes in the Sistine Chapel because I was afraid they would become repetitive.”
Berger’s other directorial credits include the feature films All Quiet on the Western Front, All My Loving and Jack; the movie for television A Good Summer; and episodes of Your Honor and The Terror. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special in 2018 for Patrick Melrose.
Berger has been a DGA member since 2019.