Having previously won the Palme d'Or for "The Son's Room" in 2001, expectations were likely riding a little too high when festival regular Nanni Moretti returned to the Croisette last year to premiere "We Have a Pope" (aka "Habemus Papam"). Perhaps put off by the lighter, crowd-pleasing tone, the film was met with a lukewarm reception, but now as it heads into theaters, we urge you to give a shot.
French actor Michel Piccoli plays the newly elected pope, who begins to question whether or not his own faith is strong enough to be worthy of the job, and whether the sacfrice of everyday life is worth graduating to the most powerful and revered post in Catholicism. Veering between comedy and drama, Moretti (who also co-stars as the pope's psychoanalyst) creates a piece that is continually unexpected, and while it's certainly a film that will have no problem finding a more mainstream audience, the pointed questions it asks display a film that has deeper thematic roots beneath the surface. When we saw it at Cannes, we said the film was "bracing, honest and even a little shocking."
Sundance Selects will release "We Have a Pope" into theaters on April 6th. Watch below. [Deadline]
