Creators:
Paolo SorrentinoDirected by:
Paolo SorrentinoCinematography:
Luca BigazziComposer:
Lele MarchitelliCast:
Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando, Javier Cámara, Scott Shepherd, Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Toni Bertorelli, James Cromwell, Ignazio Oliva (more)Episodes(10)
Plots(1)
From Paolo Sorrentino, director of the Academy Award®-winning film 'The Great Beauty,' 'The Young Pope' tells the controversial story of the beginning of Pius XIII's pontificate. Born Lenny Belardo, he is a complex and conflicted character, so conservative in his choices as to border on obscurantism, yet full of compassion towards the weak and poor. The first American pope, Pius XIII is a man of great power who is stubbornly resistant to the Vatican courtiers, unconcerned with the implications to his authority. The ten-episode series stars two-time Academy Award® nominee Jude Law as Pius XIII, and Academy Award® winner Diane Keaton as Sister Mary, a nun from the U.S. now living in Vatican City. (HBO Europe)
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Reviews (7)
A delightfully satirical drama that takes place in the untraditional setting of the Vatican Church. Sorrentino puts his money on symbolism and the visual side, right from the beginning. Law is fantastic and his Pius XIII is obviously just getting warmed up. I can’t wait to see how is this going to turn out… An emotional story about life. It doesn’t matter whether you are religious or not. Cynical scenes blend naturally with spirituality and the brilliance lies in Sorrentino’s way of handling the whole story and in fitting soundtrack. Because it is self-standing miniseries, the creators didn’t have to hold back and were able to conclude everything that they wanted to tell us. Another high point of the year, and again from HBO.
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Sorrentino’s work has always been somewhat off my radar, but I had to check out The Young Pope due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews, especially the praise for Jude Law. First, I must point out that this series is not aimed at the average mainstream audience; its style defies all conventional standards. The artiness of it occasionally annoyed me, but thanks to HIM, I was able to enjoy the final product. Jude Law truly shines in every direction. He managed to turn even the initially uninteresting scenes into memorable moments. The audiovisual quality surpasses most of the existing TV competition, whether it’s the clever camera work or the perfect visual composition (e.g., the opening credits). Unfortunately, what holds me back from a higher rating is the need for better narrative cohesion (some subplot lines felt superfluous) and perhaps a bit more build-up towards the end. However, I definitely won’t miss the sequel with John Malkovich in the future, that’s for sure :D For me, it’s 7.5/10.
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A great disappointment, given mainly by the expectations from the first episodes. The detached and unpredictable first half is a pleasure for the spiritual and earthy in us. In addition, Law acts as an irritating object that never behaves the way we want it to. Sorrentino recalled the days when he was not the grandmaster of flat populism, but could conquer quite fundamental existential concepts with his image and sound. The Vatican is his next terrarium full of lazy human reptiles searching in vain for meaning - and in this respect The Young Pope is finally a viable substance. But then there is the second half, especially some parts of episodes 6-10. What was spontaneous is rigid here. What was imaginative is random here. Ambivalence turns into literality, provocativeness into superficiality. The character of the pope becomes a trivial "incomprehensible saint". Sorrentino wanders, does silly screenwriting idiocies (the case with the letters in the table? Wtf?), sometimes uses the music downright demonstratively (Kalinka? Wtf?). The final point is unfortunately the Paolo model of Youth. Puffy, empty, convulsive, banal... I appreciate this series for its original energy with which it disrupts traditional notions about the genre and dramaturgical concept, but in the end it turns out that a little rigidity would not hurt at all. Sorrentino is full of everything, but certainly not the ability to self-censor. Brilliant moments alternate with uncertain moments. P. S. The real popes of this series are the magnificent characters of Cardinals Voiell and Gutierrez. P. S. 2: I keep (gladly) returning to the Pope's best moments in my thoughts. That’s why I’m giving it a better score.
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From the moment you realize Sorrentino is going to bring this whole thing down to parent issues, you're praying he'll wrap it up as quickly as possible and not totally decimate everything that made half of the series so breathtaking. It was a close call this time around, but the question is whether his general tendency to pull all the truths of the world down to one simple point will stimulate or irritate me more in the future. On the other hand, I will not deny that this question is for me more than for him.
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At first, I expected Paolo Sorrentino to film something more rough and more critical towards the Church. And he’s technically done it, although I don’t think that he’s offended the Church at all. He’s simply pointed out a certain state of it and he’s accepted everything else with humility, because Jude Law plays a fictional Pope character who is extravagant, but also conservative at the same time. He smokes, he likens himself to Daft Punk and openly claims that he doesn’t believe in God; because he’s the true God. And Sorrentino has filmed the entire show the way only he could – without a deeper story, but with strong moments, effectively, with the perfect soundtrack and at the same time, he managed to get maximum out of the actors. Thus the 10 episodes of this show won’t suck you in for the basically nonexistent story, but for the characters none of which is more relatable than the next one, but you can’t deny that they’re interesting. The Young Pope is an incredibly strange show and I’m fascinated that something like this can even exist. What’s more, I even watched till the very end. And I decided to ignore the people who view this show as an insult to the Church, because I personally didn’t find anything insulting about this, the opposite is true. It’s a very interesting project that – according to me – will get people talking for a long time and that will only amplify the fact that Sorrentino is a director unlike anybody else recently; and it will probably stay like that for a long time. And the Czech flags in the crowd as a response to the Czech National Symphony Orchestra were an overwhelmingly nice touch. :-)
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