yuuago | Entries tagged with conclave

I was feeling really cranky so I made some icons.

There's something kind of soothing about it. I don't even use or share most of the ones that I make. And I'm definitely not as good at it as some people. But it's fun. Kind of like scrapbooking or collage.

For some reason I'm weirdly fixated on that scene in Conclave where Benitez and Lawrence are having a conversation, and Benitez is getting ready, tying his shoes. I have no idea why I like that scene so much. Maybe I should pay more attention to it on rewatch, if I do a rewatch.

I think another reason I like making icons is because it gives me a way to do a Creative Fandom Thing without thinking about it too much. Or like, I do have to think about it - I have to make choices, and then make adjustments, but it doesn't take the same kind of mental energy that writing does. It's very different. Uses different parts of the brain.

It's also very solitary, which can be good when I'm feeling lonely. Like, if I'm lonely and try to seek out a more social type of fandom participation, it usually doesn't work very well. I don't have a lot of social connections, there usually isn't anyone I can talk to. But iconing is a fandom activity that is inherently done by yourself; it's not really something that involves interacting with other people. So I'm still alone, but I'm distracted by Doing A Thing, and I don't feel quite as sad about it.

I'm kind of thinking that I want to rewatch Conclave. Just in the mood. There's something about watching a Good Film that I've already seen a couple of times that makes me appreciate it even more. You know, the costuming, the composition of thoughts, the set dressing. Stuff like that.

It'd be kind of fun to watch it with somebody else, but nobody I know in person is into it. Bummer.

And of course, a rewatch would be yet another chance to stare at the most beautiful brown eyes the world has ever seen (according to me, at the moment). Bloody hell I sure do hope Carlos Diehz will be in more movies in the future. He was so good in Conclave! And also he's very handsome!

Gotta' hand it to him, he sure does prove that it's never too late to try something you've always wanted to do, and also have a great time doing it. And also make Quite An Impression to tons of people, apparently. That last bit is outside reach for most and not what everyone's aiming for anyway, but points one and two are very achievable and always good to remember as a Possibility.

Someone put together a ship sorter for Conclave pairings. I always find these kind of fun.

( My results )
Overall, nothing shocking here, though I'm surprised that Lawrence/O'Malley ranked above Benitez/Lawrence. And also that Bellini/previous Pope turned out number 1.

I suppose my logic with ranking was, aside from whether I like a pairing or not, is whether I would find it interesting. Bellini obviously had a lot of backstory with previous!Pope; I found his grief etc in the film very compelling. The whole thing with the chess set and so on. So I guess it makes sense.

Not surprised that Adeyemi/Tremblay was #5 for me. Like, neither of them is my favourite character, but they're both such troublemakers. And while they don't have a huge amount of interaction in the film, the amount they DO have is enough to latch onto. That damn cafeteria scene, man. Adeyemi's whole thing with "Judas. Traitor." Yeah, yeah, Tedesco's iconic vape hit, we've all seen it, but the delivery of Adeyemi's line...!

My only disappointment is that Lawrence/Tremblay isn't on the ship list, because like, I DO have opinions on that, unlike some of the stuff on the list. Partially thanks to Tremblay's route in Delectatio Morosa, but also thanks to the book, in which Lomeli is so very BEC about Tremblay and his sports-newscaster-esque good looks and his perfect hair, lol.

+ This year's Victoria Day weekend has been somewhat cold, as usual, but still nice overall. I finished all of my Obligations on Saturday and Sunday, and now I get to just relax and do nothing. (I might relax, but I will not do nothing.)

+ The interval act from this year's ESC with Baby Lasagna vs Käärijä was pretty awesome, not gonna lie.

+ Wrote a little. Feels good. I also have a finished thing that I don't know what to do with. It'll go up on my writing DW as usual once I'm done a few nitpicks, but I haven't decided if I want to crosspost it or not. It's one of those stories without much substance and not much happening. On the other hand, it's a rarepair. Hm. (I'm leaning toward not crossposting because I can't be arsed to make a decision on how to tag it, but we'll see.)

+ I rewatched Conclave with the director's commentary. It's a good commentary; would recommend giving that a look if you enjoyed the movie. Lots of insight into cinematographic choices and casting choices etc. I found it interesting that they deliberately sought out an unknown to play Benitez - since the cardinals don't know what to expect from him, the director wanted the audience to be unable to have any preconceived notions of the actor, too. It's not something I'd considered but it makes sense. (And it means they ended up with Carlos Diehz, which is of course wonderful.)

+ ...Also spent way too much time playing Delectatio Morosa. On the one hand, I generally like to complete all routes when I play visual novels. On the other, getting the Bad Routes will be hard for me - I am way too attached to these characters and I don't want to upset anybody. On the third hand, I am curious about how cardinal Lawrence could possibly fuck up so badly that it ruins his relationships with everybody, including Benitez. So.

+ I'm rather glad that I did not go to Calgary this weekend to watch the judo nationals in person. It would have been interesting, but I think it would have also been very stressful for me, and I don't really need that. One of our competitors placed, and the other did not. I looked in more detail about the match for our guy who did not place, and found out that our friend was going up against someone from Montreal. So, against someone from a bigger club with many more training opportunities due to the location (compared to here in this small northern town, where the club is small, the opportunities are limited, there is nobody at his level/weight category to train against, and the nearest training camps are 5 hours away). Of course, this is a generalization. But taking that into account, I'm not surprised, and think the guy from our club did very well considering the circumstances. Even getting to compete at the national level at all is a big achievement.

As mentioned previously, after watching the film, I decided to check out Conclave by Robert Harris.

There are a few differences between the novel and the film, but mostly they're minor changes (Lawrence = Lomeli in the novel, Benitez is Filipino in the novel rather than Mexican, etc). I do seem to recall that the turtle scene wasn't in the book; I'm kind of surprised that they added that for the movie, but it was a lovely character moment and Benitez looks kind of like a romance film protagonist in that scene, so I'm certainly not complaining.

Some of the scenes were more effective in the movie than the novel, I think. But that could be due to acting and directorial choices and so on. The one that comes to mind is the saying grace scene after Benitez is introduced to everyone - in the novel, Benitez just says the whole thing, and that's that. But in the film, he pauses after saying the usual spiel, and everyone thinks he's finished and starts to sit down - but then he continues, thanking the Sisters and reminding the others of the impoverished etc, and the effect is very striking.

There are some differences between the novel and the film that I did find interesting, even if the change doesn't affect the overall plot.

( Continued, spoilers )

Overall, I wouldn't say that the novel is a must-read if you liked the film, but I enjoyed it a lot and I think that if you wanted more after watching the movie, it's a good direction to go. Plus you get more into Lomeli's (Lawrence)'s head, etc. On the reverse, I don't think I would actually recommend it without seeing the film first, because the film really is rather good and there are a few things that I thought it did better. (Though I might be biased.)

Well, this sure is a weird moment to get into the Conclave fandom, isn't it*.

I normally wouldn't pay any attention to the passing of a figure in a religion I have no connection to, but. Y'know. Coincidences etc.

There are jokes going around tumblr about electing Carlos Diehz as pope. On the one hand, lol irl Benitez. On the other, bloody hell people, don't wish such a thing on that poor guy! (All in good fun, of course, of course, but man....)

Apparently there is a fanmade visual novel for Conclave (I found about it through the development tumblr here). It's called Delectatio Morosa. [Info]

...I... kind of want to play it?

This movie sank its claws into me in the weirdest way and now I want more. I don't know how this happened.

I have read the book and now I kind of want to rewatch the movie, though admittedly that is partially because I want to thirst after Carlos Diehz. I don't know what it is exactly but he is absolutely magnetic as Vincent Benitez.

....Maybe I will play the game too. If I can find time.

+ Took today off because I Felt Like It. Plus I had to go to an appointment. (Didn't need the whole day for that, but like, figured I might as well....) Also, treated to myself to lunch, just because I could. Felt nice!

+ Repotted two of my plants. Two others got the boot - the pepperomia and the oyster plant are gonzo. I probably could have saved them, like I did last year when they were struggling, but I didn't feel motivated enough to make the effort. So, now I'm down to a christmas cactus and two snake plants. Not sure what I will replace the other two with. Last year I'd considered picking up one of the hens&chicks that the garden centre was selling, and just keep it as an indoor plant; I might end up actually doing that. It seems that plants that tolerate dryness and cold do well in my apartment.

+ Made lentil burgers. Used this recipe from Occasionally Eggs. Tasted pretty good; would make again. Next time I might mix it up a little - different spices, maybe include some diced bell pepper. Though, I really suck at making patties. Maybe that's something that comes with practice? I've only tried making burgers a few times.

+ Took the book version of Conclave out from the library. Looking forward to it. The movie was pretty good, but the nice thing about books is that you usually get more deeply into at least one character's head.

+ I was surprised to see a lot of people on the Latest Things page posting their first entry in a new journal. Turns out some people are considering making a jump from Tumblr to DW due to some issues going on over there (staff layoffs etc). Well, DW's a very different kind of site, but I hope they enjoy it. I think it would be a good match for people who like textposting.

Watched Conclave last night. I knew two things going in: That it's about a bunch of cardinals electing somebody to be Pope, and that it has a much larger fandom than one would expect given the premise.

This is a beautiful movie. The cinematography, the costuming, the casting and acting, the music - it's very well-crafted. Worth a look for that alone. Carlos Diehz was wonderful as Cardinal Benitez, and I'm shocked that this was the first full-length film he's acted in. Also, Lucian Msamati was excellent as Cardinal Adeyemi, and I can't believe I haven't seen any of his other work before; will need to investigate.

One thing that I really liked was the use of language in this film. A lot of it is in English, but a lot of it is in other languages as well, in ways that fit the characters. There are deliberate choices about which language to use at any given time. I'm thinking of Cardinal Tedesco in particular - an old Italian guy with his Opinions on tradition definitely would be speaking Italian as much as possible. Also, Benitez delivering his speech in his native Mexican Spanish rather than English. (I saw a post somewhere saying that the script originally had it in Castillian Spanish, and Carlos Diehz requested to rewrite it so that it would be correct - if this did happen, then I suspect that, in addition to being more fitting for the character, it contributed to how effective his delivery of the speech was.)

There's a lot of politicking and rumours and whispered conversations in this movie. Small moments of closeness. Lots of characters that you can build on. Isolation in unhospitable environments. ...Turns out, the director, Edward Berger, also directed some episodes of The Terror; I think that some of the broad things above apply to both. So when I give it some thought, yes it's surprising that Conclave has an active fandom, but on the other hand I guess it's not totally out there.

I enjoyed it more than I expected, and I think I will give the novel a read eventually. There are probably a lot of things that went over my head because I don't know anything about the catholic church but still - it was a very interesting movie.

Also, some of the fanart is very nice. Here are some select favourites from tumblr:
* Cardinals group by tuherrus
* Group with mural by wolfythewitch (login required)
* [Spoilers] Grant us a Pope who doubts by cherriielle