...Just as the people of Gotham wondered who Batman was, what made him what he was, I wonder who IS Pope Pius XIII. He is Machiavellian, he has no problems humiliating people such as the Italian prime minister, and boasting about it to a journalist, telling her the secret to humiliating someone is to not let them know they've been humiliated. Hardly Christ-like.
After a young woman who had been barren spends time with the Pope and then becomes pregnant and gives birth, Pius visits the hospital where mother, father, and baby are. The parents have chosen the name "Pius" for the child and Lenny finds a way to insult the husband not once but twice, the last time calling the child "Pius XIV" to perhaps cast doubt on the child's paternity. Nope, there was no papal canoodling that produced this child ... but the husband acts unsure and Lenny/Pius picks up on it and needlessly exploits it.
He gives his address to the cardinals and starts it with a knock knock joke but segues into a speech where he claims what was once open shall be hidden. He wants no compromise with the world, just fanatics for God, he wants being a Catholic to be hard work. He doesn't care if that means less followers.
But Pius XIII is also Lenny Belardo, an orphan raised in a Catholic orphanage with Sister Mary (Diane Keaton) as a stand-in mother, although she warns him not to think of her that way. Actually Lenny was abandoned, and where his mother is and why she found him so disposable is never far from his mind nor far from his acts as pope.
How did this happen? The conclave was split between choosing a conservative and liberal pope and picked Lenny as a compromise who they thought could be easily controlled. Ironically Lenny, as pope, has the word "compromise" banned from the cardinals' vocabulary.
Besides this there is the cinematography, the acting, the way the delightful dialogue flowed in unexpected ways, and just how Lenny (and Jude Law) made it worth it all. We have the pope chain smoking, in shades, praying underwater for what seems an unnatural amount of time, raising the near dead as a teen and as pope striking down the exploitative while surrounded by 18 wheel trucks, both times with a silent prayer. What he said to God is all of ours to guess.
We'll see about season two, but as long as they have Law on board it could be done. Bottom line is that it was a most enjoyably exacting and unique experience. I would be surprised if it does not get an Emmy nod, even if it is unlikely to win due to the views of the young pope.
Try it. It will have you thinking about it each week and hoping for a Region One DVD release. I do, and I was raised a Baptist.
After a young woman who had been barren spends time with the Pope and then becomes pregnant and gives birth, Pius visits the hospital where mother, father, and baby are. The parents have chosen the name "Pius" for the child and Lenny finds a way to insult the husband not once but twice, the last time calling the child "Pius XIV" to perhaps cast doubt on the child's paternity. Nope, there was no papal canoodling that produced this child ... but the husband acts unsure and Lenny/Pius picks up on it and needlessly exploits it.
He gives his address to the cardinals and starts it with a knock knock joke but segues into a speech where he claims what was once open shall be hidden. He wants no compromise with the world, just fanatics for God, he wants being a Catholic to be hard work. He doesn't care if that means less followers.
But Pius XIII is also Lenny Belardo, an orphan raised in a Catholic orphanage with Sister Mary (Diane Keaton) as a stand-in mother, although she warns him not to think of her that way. Actually Lenny was abandoned, and where his mother is and why she found him so disposable is never far from his mind nor far from his acts as pope.
How did this happen? The conclave was split between choosing a conservative and liberal pope and picked Lenny as a compromise who they thought could be easily controlled. Ironically Lenny, as pope, has the word "compromise" banned from the cardinals' vocabulary.
Besides this there is the cinematography, the acting, the way the delightful dialogue flowed in unexpected ways, and just how Lenny (and Jude Law) made it worth it all. We have the pope chain smoking, in shades, praying underwater for what seems an unnatural amount of time, raising the near dead as a teen and as pope striking down the exploitative while surrounded by 18 wheel trucks, both times with a silent prayer. What he said to God is all of ours to guess.
We'll see about season two, but as long as they have Law on board it could be done. Bottom line is that it was a most enjoyably exacting and unique experience. I would be surprised if it does not get an Emmy nod, even if it is unlikely to win due to the views of the young pope.
Try it. It will have you thinking about it each week and hoping for a Region One DVD release. I do, and I was raised a Baptist.