True Stories 44: 10s—The Two Popes

Like last week’s The Irishman, The Two Popes [2019], written by Anthony McCarten, was a critical success. Unlike the incredible action and movement in The Irishman, though, The Two Popes just sat there—and I mean literally.

But that’s one of its major achievements. Think about it—how do you make a movie interesting for two hours when it’s pretty much just two guys sitting around talking? But that’s what this movie did—though the “guys” happen to be Popes of the Catholic Church.

The only other film I can think of that did this kind of structure as well was My Dinner with Andre [1981]. In that film, two guys go to dinner together and talk about philosophical, personal and world issues. But it’s mostly talk about how one should live life. It’s a cult favorite of many moviegoers, unlike The Two Popes which was a critical success.

It’s interesting that both My Dinner with Andre and The Two Popes were box office failures. Big time. No one went to see them.

I saw The Two Popes only because I got the screener in the mail for award voting. But the critics were—for the most part—incredibly laudatory of the film. So why didn’t people go see it?

Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=T5OhkFY1PQE

So can you blame the film’s lack of success on a bad trailer? Or is it the subject matter itself? Do people judge a film about two popes sitting around talking as uninteresting—so they don’t even bother to see it? Or is it the subject matter—religion? As one critic said, the film is a “very Catholic” film so did protestants and Muslims and those of other faiths stay away? Perhaps non-Catholic audiences thought it not their thing. But then, why didn’t the Catholic audience show up? One could postulate that although the two popes themselves were admirable people, the issues they were dealing with cast an unattractive spotlight on the Catholic Church—so perhaps Catholic audiences pointedly stayed away.

But be that as it may, there’s no doubt in my mind that the script for The Two Popes was very well done indeed. And if you’re going to write a film where it’s just two people sitting around talking, you could do worse than study this screenplay.

Though, given the choice, I’d be inclined to keep two-character stories on the stage rather than on the screen. There are just too many things working against that kind of a story in a medium that’s all about movement… moving pictures.

Next week, well, lots of movement and lots of characters in a film called Hustlers.

Copyright © Diane Lake

16Apr23

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