MovieChat Forums > Habemus Papam (2011) Discussion > The King's Speech?

The King's Speech?

posted 13 years ago by collinfrey26
7 replies | jump to latest

The summary on IMDb makes it sound A LOT like the King's Speech. For those of you who have seen it, is it?

It has similarities. But it is not a success story as the King's Speech and the portrayal of the Cardinals is so naive that it makes the smurfs seem machiavellian in comparison. The idea of angst before huge responsibilities is the same as well as the concept of finding public speaking difficult but in this movie it plays a subsidiary role and it is not the central theme as in The King's Speech- and no war is imminent..

[–] thelongblondes 13 years ago

There's barely anything in common here with the King's Speech. It does sound like it's going to be the same film - "a psychologist is called to help the new Pope speaking to the people" - but the problem is not the speech, but the fact that Michel Piccoli doesn' want to be Pope, and possibly did not even want to be Cardinal in the first place. Yet, he has been elected by God.

There's only two scenes between the psychologist and the Pope, so don't expect the same film at all. Nani Moretti is more like the joker of this tale, he's here for the fun, it's not at all about the relationship between Piccoli and Moretti.

[–] jcnsoflorida 12 years ago

(Spoiler here)
Some similarity with The King's Speech but, as Anaheim's interesting message notes, Pope (surprisingly) does not have a Hollywood ending.

I found similarities with Shakespeare in Love: both are 'What If?' movies and acting/performance are central to both stories. In contrast, though, Shakespeare is quite young whereas Pope is in his 60s, I think. Also, Pope has no romance to speak of.

First half of Pope is better than second half, because the '3-day secret' is implausible.

I recommend Pope but don't expect light comedy. Piccoli is excellent and the film, overall, is intriguing.

[–] jacawaro 12 years ago

No Message

[–] Anaheim92807 12 years ago

Yes, similar in that it deals with a person having a character flaw. Instead of a speech impediment, the person in this film is extremely shy and humble and has low self-esteem. However, unlike "The King's Speech" he does not overcome this character flaw. The 2 psychoanalysts try to help him, but all they can do is label the cause of his flaw as due to "parental deficit."

At the end of the movie I came to realize that the Pope-elect's main character flaw was his lack of ambition. He simply wasn't ambitious enough to assume the role of Pope. This, to me, was in contradiction to his always wanting to be an actor, for there is no better actor and stage than being the Pope!

The film itself also contradicts the idea that most, if not all Cardinals have had to have been ambitious and cut-throat to get to where they are. That all of them would kill to be the Pope someday! Instead we find in this film that none of them are ambitious enough to assume the role. This is a premise that I found hard to believe.

[–] georgioskarpouzas 12 years ago

I agree with your point about ambition. Though not all Cardinals are necessarily cut-throat surely they are not the childlike naive kindly old men portrayed in the movie. I state the same point in my review of the film.

[–] 12 years ago

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