Conclave is a powerful film with weighty themes, masterfully directed by Academy Award Winner Edward Berger. It is a fine film in modern times that wrestles with a Cardinal’s crisis of faith played with subtle grace by Ralph Fiennes. This film was a rare drama that hit at the box office and has recently been nominated for 8 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing and Best Costume Design by the magnificent Lisy Christl. She has worked on dozens of films including Caché, Funny Games, and Time of The Wolf for master filmmaker Michael Haneke. Christl recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
I know you’ve worked with Edward before… talk a little bit about that.
My first collaboration with Edward was All Quiet On The Western Front. When we first met, we talked a lot about uniforms. I told him, “You know, your question for me must be why I’m interested in doing this movie because it’s a war and uniform movie.” For me, this was the starting point behind every uniform of a human being with his own story, his own background, and his own education.
At the time I started researching the Clergy for a personal project and nuns and monks and priests and bishops and cardinals. I told him that I was working on something that might be one day a book and he said, “Believe it or not, I have a script about, the conclave.” Now the two of us are here. This movie has this beautiful journey, and I’m very happy about it, I’m still working on my book.
I ask everyone who worked on this movie, are you a religious person?
I was born and raised in South Germany, a very Catholic part of Germany, Bavaria which is close to Rome. I would say yes, I am.
Do you think that provided any sort of special insight into this world that’s explored here in this film?
I think this is kind of the groundwork. I started this movie with the same respect, maybe with a different feeling about it. We lived for six months in Rome and you are surrounded by this world.
You go for a coffee in the morning and you see priests and nuns and observe them. It is a dress for a lifetime. It’s a very bold decision to wear your faith on your body, you are exposed to everybody. I think this is one of the boldest decisions.
One very powerful thing about this film in terms of design is the use of the color red. Can you talk about that a little bit? The use of red in this movie?
Red is a very important color in the Catholic Church, to begin with. Edward and I looked at the shade of red the church is using now and thought it wouldn’t work for the film. This was actually our starting point to say, let’s change the color. Let’s also change the fabric to a heavier, woolen fabric, in a red that embraces you. A color can create a distance and the color can draw you in. Red is the color of blood. It’s for love. It’s for fire. It is a very powerful and meaningful color.
Can you talk about how you crafted the costumes for the specific characters? There is uniformity but there are also striking differences.
They each had three outfits. One of them is the daily outfit. The Black Cassock with red buttons and the red ribbon around – that’s a cardinal, but this is his private outfit. Ralph Fiennes plays a cardinal who lives in Rome and is a liberal man.
With Ralph, we created a lot together for his character. We went together for a very, very simple overcoat at the beginning when he greets Tedesco and the other Cardinals as a sign of his simplicity.
On the contrary, Tedesco, who is the patriarch from Venice, comes in this big red overcoat showing all the power he has. The patriarch from Venice is a very powerful man. Yes. He’s the only one who’s allowed still to wear these big red capes.
Let’s talk for a moment about Isabella Rossellini and the different looks of the women in the church in this film…
There’s a specific order that takes care of the Santa Marta, which is kind of like a hotel. The Pope lives there, it’s on Vatican ground, and some clergy also stay there… Isabella Rossellini is an abbess, a nun allowed to be there in silence. The sisters wear blue, and in her position, she would wear black, and she wears black, but then she has this blue cape too – this is an invention. This was an artistic choice.
Can you talk a little bit about working with the production designer Suzie Davies…
My cardinal sits on Suzie’s chair and walks on her carpet, she created the home for the people in the film. We were both in Rome for several months. Our offices were really close to each other, so it was wonderful. I could walk over and Susie would show me, her swatches and her drawings. We were very close.
Any favorite aspects of what you worked on here? Were there any costumes or let’s say moments in the film that kind of showcased your work that you’re particularly proud of…
I think my absolute favorite scene is the scene where Ralph has this speech and you have all the cardinals and all this power inside this room around him, and then you cut and outside sits in quiet Isabella Rossellini and listens to his words. I think this is my favorite scene.
Conclave is a rare drama that performed well at the box office. It got great reviews. It’s won awards now, it’s up for several Academy Awards, including one for yourself. What’s it like being on this ride?
It’s unbelievable and at the same time, all this is wonderful. The most wonderful part of this is to be part of this team because we work together and we like each other a lot. The biggest gift for me is to be part of this Edward Berger family.
Conclave is available to stream and is playing at select theaters.
