♪ (ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
-No. No! -(CAMERAS SHUTTERING)
No!
The press is positively enthusiastic about your, "No."
The media volume is irrefutable.
That is the private number to my apartment.
SOFIA DUBOIS: Did you appoint my husband
because you have faith in me?
POPE JOHN PAUL III: No.
The decision to see the world as ugly and evil,
has made the world ugly and evil.
ESTER: I can't, I can't anymore.
All this breathing has made quite an impression.
Turn off that radio, please.
That interview with Kitsworth is indispensable
to refocus attention on you.
JOHN PAUL III: I know now what I want to say.
[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
[silverware clinking]
[door creaks]
[slow footsteps]
[clattering]
- Hmm.
They're all distortions of love.
Hysteria of one sort or another.
That's how the Holy Father defined them.
- [chuckles] Do we know each other?
- You are...
Sofia Dubois.
Tomas Altbruck's wife.
Everybody knows you.
And I am...
Leopold Essence,
whom no one knows.
[spoon splatting]
- What were you saying just now?
- Follow the love, I was saying.
That's where you will find... failure.
[cockroach hisses] - [gasps]
Excuse me, but... who are you?
- I am the second most intelligent man in the world.
And while we're on that subject...
Is it possible to call
Tomas Altbruck
a man?
Follow the love, Sofia.
[spoon splatting]
[Sofi Tukker's "Good Time Girl"]
♪ ♪
- ♪ When I said it out loud, it wasn't as strong ♪
♪ As it was in my head ♪
♪ I tried not to think about it ♪
♪ So it came back louder ♪
♪ I think it's been about a year ♪
♪ Since I became a snob, decided not to play along ♪
♪ So it grew bigger ♪
♪ Me and my head have become very, very, very close ♪
♪ We decided not to tell you ♪
♪ To tell you about it ♪
♪ We're just gonna play it safe ♪
♪ Do what we know ♪
♪ Play it cool, lay low ♪
♪ Not tell you about it ♪
♪ And here I am playing by myself ♪
♪ Me and my superiority complex ♪
♪ And here I am playing by myself ♪
♪ Me and my inferiority contest ♪
♪ I'm not winning ♪
♪ But I'm having a very good time ♪
♪ ♪
♪ You can call me ♪
♪ You can call me the good-time girl ♪
- ♪ When I said it out loud, it didn't sound as good ♪
♪ I couldn't be as proud of my original thought ♪
♪ I'm not trying to whisper what should be barked ♪
♪ But I can't imagine being out of control ♪
♪ Or knocked off the top, my head and I ♪
♪ When I'm all alone, but we're in my prime ♪
♪ Don't want the throne when I'm doing just fine ♪
♪ Just so long as I'm having a real good time ♪
♪ ♪
- ♪ You can call me ♪
[sparse orchestral music]
♪ ♪
[ventilator whooshing]
♪ ♪
[monitor beeping slowly]
♪ ♪
- [sighs heavily]
- Whom did you prefer,
Pius XIII or Francis II?
- I knew Pius XIII better.
- So Pius XIII, then. Why?
- Because he believed in me.
- I believe in you too.
But will you believe in me?
- I'll give what's owed to you to Fabiano.
- No.
You will give it to me.
Fabiano no longer exists, for me or for you.
And I will decide the amount.
15,000 a visit.
- As it should be.
Before you arrived, Attanasio would scream all night.
For 20 years, no one in this house got any sleep.
But now he sleeps like a baby.
[paper tears]
Thanks to you.
And you, Ester...
how are you?
Are you calm like Attanasio
or stormy like the sea?
- [inhales deeply]
Stormy.
- Because...you see the danger.
[dramatic orchestral music]
- What danger?
- Pleasure.
♪ ♪
A pleasure you didn't experience before...
♪ ♪
Didn't long for...
♪ ♪
Didn't even know existed.
♪ ♪
An unexpected pleasure is seeping into you,
a sensation
you hadn't reckoned with.
I know what I'm talking about, Ester.
♪ ♪
I know.
♪ ♪
A mother
is capable of...
anything in order to...
♪ ♪
I have to talk to you about something,
but I don't know how.
♪ ♪
Attanasio is not the only one.
♪ ♪
- I don't understand.
- Attanasio is not the only one,
and I'm not the only mother who suffers.
There are lots of us, Ester.
Lots of well-off, unhappy parents
with children no one wants to look at
because nature has turned against them.
♪ ♪
They are all waiting for you, Ester.
You have a gift
which you are finally beginning to recognize.
♪ ♪
- What gift?
- The gift of human warmth.
You are a saint, Ester.
♪ ♪
- I'm a whore.
♪ ♪
- Do you know what the difference is
between a whore and a saint?
None.
[Be Svendsen's "Scarecrow"]
♪ ♪
- ♪ A day you laid in the evening shore ♪
♪ ♪
- [coughs]
- ♪ Upon my bridges and still no word ♪
♪ ♪
♪ All this trouble in the day's work ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Upon my tongue ♪ - [speaking Italian]
- ♪ Taste the remorse ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Adding fuel to the fire ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Doubt that they will find you ♪
♪ ♪
- Forgive me, Eminence. It's late.
Have I disturbed you?
[soft classical music]
♪ ♪
- What have you discovered
about Spalletta, Guicciardini, and your husband?
- All three of them frequent the same underage girl.
At the same time.
- I see.
- You don't seem particularly perturbed.
- [inhales deeply]
I knew about Spalletta already.
Guicciardini and your husband are laymen.
They concern me only up to a certain point.
- That's all you have to say?
♪ ♪
- 129 breaths, then a sigh.
- So they are still broadcasting?
- Yes.
It's not the only new development.
There is another.
A certain threesome
who are operating in a decidedly opaque manner,
both at the financial level--
I am referring to various unscrupulous operations
carried out by our own financial organization--
and at the private level.
The moral level, to be precise.
Would you like me to elaborate?
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [sighs heavily]
[monitor beeping slowly]
[harp plays]
- I detest politics and gossip in equal measure,
but in this little state of ours,
it seems impossible for even the pope
to avoid matters of unprecedented vulgarity.
- I am delighted to be here and help you.
- That is convenient, Eminence,
for only you can help me,
as it's you we're talking about.
We need to rethink things.
Certain behaviors, if made public,
would expose me, and people would say
John Paul III does nothing.
- Allow me to explain, Holy Father.
[suspenseful music]
Altbruck and I are making Guicciardini happy.
In exchange, he has dissuaded the prime minister
from taking lethal measures.
Repealing the "eight per thousand"
wasn't the only item on the table.
They were even considering introducing a tax
on Church property,
effective retroactively.
Let me remind you
that we have never paid taxes on our properties.
Do you have any idea
what that would mean in economic terms for the Church?
A catastrophe.
The Church doesn't want that,
nor, obviously,
do those directly involved.
[breathes deeply]
There are only two people
who could divulge that agreement
between Guicciardini, Altbruck, and me.
One is you,
but you and I have...
already affirmed our mutual affection,
rather than any inclination to blackmail.
The other is the secretary of state,
who, however, has...
always tended toward complete and total autonomy,
even in regard to the pope,
and who pursues mysterious interests
that are completely unknown to everyone but himself.
So regarding the secretary of state,
the situation is far more volatile,
and you, Your Holiness,
are the only one who can defuse it.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Tomas Altbruck and Spalletta are laundering money.
They are paying Guicciardini through offshore companies,
withdrawing funds from our financial structure.
- [gasps]
♪ ♪
- I make no moral judgment regarding these operations.
For me, it's merely a question of expediency.
Sooner or later, some enterprising journalist
will stick his nose in our business
and uncover everything,
and you will be dragged into the ensuing scandal.
- Scandal leaves me indifferent,
as does reputation.
Those are concerns
for the petite bourgeoisie,
a class to which
I do not belong.
I was taught proper form,
polished to perfection,
becomes mystical.
- As you like, Your Holiness.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- You know,
Eminence,
I'm saying this for your own good.
Perhaps it's...
time you took a step back.
♪ ♪
- I don't understand. What do you mean?
♪ ♪
- Please, it would pain me to spell it out for you.
You understand perfectly well what I mean.
♪ ♪
- I am the longest-serving secretary of state
in the history of the Church.
There must be a reason.
- There are hundreds, I'm sure,
but since you already hold the record
for service to the papacy,
why not use the network
you have painstakingly constructed over decades
and the vast wealth of knowledge
and experience you've acquired
as a bequest to a new generation
represented by a new secretary of state,
say, someone like Cardinal Assente?
- Are you asking or ordering me?
- I do not like to have to choose,
and I do not like giving orders.
- I do.
I adore giving orders.
It's my whole life.
♪ ♪
[ventilator whooshing]
♪ ♪
- [sighs heavily]
♪ ♪
- Schedule the interview.
I'm ready.
♪ ♪
- I was on my way to see you.
- How are you? - Tense.
Essence planted a cockroach in my car.
Do you think he was trying to intimidate me, Eminence?
- A rather crude form of intimidation, but yes.
They want to make sure you don't talk.
- What am I supposed to do?
- Don't talk.
- What's wrong?
You look different.
You look lifeless.
- Napoli lost.
♪ ♪
- You wanted to see me, Eminence?
- Yes, rather urgently.
I am transferring you, effective immediately.
- You are promoting me?
- Even better. I am making you a missionary.
- Where am I going?
- To Kabul.
- [exclaims sharply]
Kabul?
But there are no Catholics in Kabul.
- Exactly.
What does a missionary do? He begins.
- Why are you doing this?
- Because in Kabul,
there are no pedophile priests whose sins need to be covered.
Good-bye, Hernández.
I have to talk to you.
Imperiously, and in violation of all your demands,
I have made some decisions for a number of you.
Sister Melanie,
you will receive psychological assistance
twice a week free of charge.
- Why? This is outrageous.
- Because Sister Melanie is a kleptomaniac.
Sister Ivanka, on the other hand,
will be transferred to Sister Suree's care.
She will work for the pope.
- But why?
- Because she is
continually mistreated and sexually harassed
by three sisters who shall remain nameless.
Discretion,
let it be remembered through the centuries,
has always been one of the greatest attributes
of the secretary of state.
[sighs]
Reverend Mother,
you never noticed Sister Ivanka's suffering,
but I do not reproach you in the least.
You didn't notice it because you are preoccupied
by something at the base of your breast.
It is all you think about,
but you cannot bring yourself to confront the issue,
so I decided to confront it for you.
You have an appointment at the Gemelli Hospital
on Tuesday morning at 9:00 with Dr. Vilar,
one of the best oncologists in Rome.
♪ ♪
How is it going?
- Fine.
♪ ♪
But I'm scared.
- Don't be. I have thought about you too.
I pretended that you sisters presented me with a request
to be allowed to receive orphans inside the convent,
and I have authorized your request.
Caterina's baby
will be the first pretend orphan you will receive.
Every now and then, with every precaution,
you will let Faisal see the baby
inside the gardener's shed.
Not here. It is too dangerous here.
- How do you know all these things about us?
- Because I am the longest-serving
secretary of state in the history of the Church,
and I have spent my life informing myself.
And now for you, Sister Lisette--
- I have something to say to you first...
Eminence.
The Wi-Fi is slow because you slowed it deliberately.
You're afraid that our protest will spread.
- I told you that you'd be a formidable adversary.
- At what point is our request to meet with the Holy Father?
- At a dead end,
because as of today,
I am no longer the secretary of state.
When I leave here, I will submit my resignation,
and it will be accepted.
So you will have to file a new request
with the new secretary of state, Cardinal Assente.
- What do you advise us to do, Eminence?
- To carry on with your battle.
You have not one but a thousand reasons to.
- Thank you, Eminence.
- Do you know what is so awful
about these endless battles over rights?
There is no room left for poetry.
What are you thinking of naming him?
- We haven't decided yet.
- May I suggest you name him Angelo, like me?
- And if it's a girl?
- Still Angelo. It's a unisex name.
♪ ♪
[thunder rumbling]
[speaking Italian]
[thunder rumbling]
♪ ♪
[thunder cracking]
[Grouper's "Breathing"]
- ♪ I sigh here, laying gently ♪
♪ ♪
♪ A murderer ♪
♪ And then you touch ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Saw you run hard ♪
♪ ♪
♪ You faced to ♪
♪ Clear the frame ♪
♪ ♪
[overlapping indistinct singing]
♪ ♪
♪ I saw your chest still racing ♪
♪ ♪
♪ I felt an urge to reach ♪
♪ But ♪
- I'll see you on Thursday?
- No, Ester.
Our relationship ends here.
- What?
Why?
- Attanasio and the others, too, they are tired of this.
Even they get bored from routine.
- Attanasio is not tired of me.
- You're not a girl anymore, Ester.
And we found some African women
who cost a lot less
and are much younger than you.
Besides, you need to think about your future.
You were poor.
We've made you well-off.
Now you have a nice house, a babysitter.
Go find yourself a normal husband.
- [breathes heavily]
- Do something else.
What did you expect,
that this would go on forever?
- That's not the point.
- What is the point, then?
- The point is...
is that I need Attanasio.
[soft footsteps]
[thunder rumbling]
- That's exactly what's not going to work.
- What are you saying?
Sex yes, love no?
- Precisely. - I don't understand.
- You're such a fool, Ester.
Sex has no value
because it lives and dies in the present,
but love doesn't.
Love is dangerous because it looks to the future.
What sort of future could there be for you and Attanasio?
- Every Thursday night when I come here,
that's the future.
And you wouldn't have to pay another penny,
if that's an issue.
- No.
It ends here.
Attanasio doesn't return your love.
- I see.
Only you can love Attanasio, right?
- That's exactly right, Ester.
Only I can love Attanasio.
In every sense.
[waves crashing]
[gasping and gagging]
- Holy Father, I beg you.
I implore you, please. Stop my hand.
- [wails]
[crying]
[wails]
[monitor beeping slowly]
- Shall I bring your box, sir?
- I think I'll manage without.
Thank you, Danny.
Do you think they'll watch me on telly--my parents?
- Oh, yes.
I do.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[camera shutter snapping]
♪ ♪
- You're trembling.
So am I.
♪ ♪
- Holy Father, thank you.
Words aren't enough to express my gratitude.
Answering our questions in a worldwide broadcast
is an unparalleled privilege for us,
and this is the first time
that such a thing has happened,
a pontiff agreeing to a live, free-ranging interview.
- Thank you.
- Well, then let's get started.
We've come to know John Paul III,
but we would also like to get to know
Sir John Brannox.
Holy Father, just who is John Brannox?
- A priest who had-- or has--the good fortune
to be more loved by God than he is by himself.
- And where did you grow up?
- I spent almost my entire life on our family's estate
on the outskirts of London,
together with my father, my mother,
once upon a time, my twin brother, Adam,
and a thousand or so fallow deer.
- Your brother, Adam--
your youth, Holy Father,
was scarred by...
a sorrowful event.
One day while you were skiing together,
your brother suddenly took ill
and died.
I understand that the two of you were very close.
How did your life change after that tragic event?
- My grief,
like all great sorrows,
cannot be expressed in words.
The dictionary...
does not contain the-- the adequate words.
My life changed, but, more importantly,
my faith changed.
Before Adam's death,
life was a long and quiet river, taken for granted.
Perhaps pure.
Ritualistic, even.
But almost immediately after Adam's passing...
A secret and scorching religiosity penetrated me,
something rocky and hidden.
I closed myself off from the world,
but that closure...
Began a sort of hidden life of the heart,
what Cardinal Newman might have referred to
as the "secret actions of the heart."
And when the Holy Spirit breathed in me
and my life changed again--
I was made pope and bishop of Rome--
I realized that the time had come
for me to offer up to the Catholics of the world
my secret devotion.
- An active devotion, then.
- Co--yes.
An...active devotion.
- What does it consist of, and what are your priorities?
[suspenseful music]
- Pardon?
♪ ♪
- What does it consist of, and what are your priorities?
♪ ♪
- My priority is evil.
♪ ♪
Evil that...
must be looked at
openly,
without hypocrisy,
without distinction, without value scales.
♪ ♪
Evil is evil.
♪ ♪
- Well, in that case, if you have no objection,
I'd like to explore with you, one at a time,
all the aspects of this "evil"
that assails the Church.
I'm sure that you'd be happy
to tell us how the Church intends to proceed.
♪ ♪
One of the most urgent themes
is the wave of sex abuse scandals
that's swept over priests, bishops, and cardinals.
- Let's break off the interview.
- Are you mad? We are live.
This is being broadcast worldwide.
- What can the Church do to stop all this?
- Believe me, he is not going to make it.
- Of course he will. He's just a little bit nervous.
The Holy Father knows better than anyone
how to take the stage.
[dissonant resonance]
♪ ♪
- You don't get it, do you? - Get what?
- He's in withdrawal, damn it.
♪ ♪
- Excuse me.
♪ ♪
[ventilator whooshing]
- Forgive me, blessed Father, if I have been loved...
And if I have loved.
Forgive me, blessed Father,
for it brought me pleasure.
[ventilator whooshing]
♪ ♪
- [sighs heavily]
[ventilator whooshing]
[moans softly]
[monitor beeping slowly]
[sighs heavily]
[beeping stops]
[Sumie's "Show Talked Windows"]
♪ ♪
- ♪ I thought of leaving ♪
♪ Next to you ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Show talked windows ♪
♪ Cold rain coats ♪
♪ Slow sparked candles ♪
♪ Fought in the storms ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Show talked windows ♪
♪ Cold rain coats ♪
♪ Slow sparked candles ♪
♪ ♪
[bright tone]
♪ (ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
MAN: God does not deny anyone the grace of salvation.
God saves us. Always.
MAN 2: Your Holiness. You rose from the dead.
What are you?
A guru? A saint?
LENNY BELARDO: I didn't ask for this.
God. You called me.
♪ (MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
Now tell me why.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪