We Have a Pope

We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam, 2011) is Nanni Moretti's bittersweet Italian comedy-drama, available to watch online on iFILM. A conclave elects Cardinal Melville (Michel Piccoli) to the papacy, but moments before he steps onto the balcony of St. Peter's, he realizes he cannot carry the weight.

Pilgrims fill the square waiting for a first blessing while the new Pope locks himself away and refuses to appear. In total secrecy the Vatican summons Rome's finest psychoanalyst (played by Moretti himself), only to forbid the atheist from raising faith, childhood or sex — so the sessions go nowhere. As the cardinals kill time with volleyball tournaments, Melville slips out into the city and wanders Rome as an ordinary man. Margherita Buy and Jerzy Stuhr round out the cast.

Moretti resists the easy church satire and delivers a quiet study of a man crushed by other people's expectations and the right to admit "I can't do this." Piccoli carries the whole film on one weary, searching face. It was named Best Film at the Italian Golden Globes. Stream We Have a Pope (2011) online on iFILM.