Is Conclave a true story? We check the fact that the book turned into a movie

We discuss the voting process depicted in the new papal thriller Conclave (in theaters now). Mild spoilers ahead!

Twice in past years I jumped to Rome to highlight one of the most mysterious, legendary and secret events in human history: the election of a new Pope.

The event is also known as a conclave, a term that gives the title to Robert Harris’s 2016 book-turned-movie thriller. The Conclave takes place during a fictional meeting of red-cloaked cardinals who gather in the Eternal City to vote for who will lead the world’s approximately 1.4 billion Catholics.

Many are familiar with the final moments of the conclave, when white smoke rises from a chimney near the Sistine Chapel, causing wild applause from the assembled faithful, after which the newly elected pontiff appears on the central balcony of the church. St. Peter’s Basilica.

Join our Watch Party! Register to get USA TODAY movie and TV show recommendations delivered straight to your inbox.

But considering that the Vatican is not really do In Hollywood, the question is how the filmmakers managed to capture the minute details – from the elaborate clothing to the Latin voting oaths – shown in the film, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as opposing cardinals and Isabella Rossellini as an inquisitive woman. nun.

“We were given a private tour of the Vatican, and they were very welcoming, even very helpful,” says Conclave screenwriter Peter Straughan. “So this was actually a big research project. It’s a fascinating and theatrical world, so you need to get all the details right. It’s a very luxurious thing.”

Vatican officials seemed to agree with the film’s shocking premise, Straughan adds, as well as its depiction of the political machinations of the conclave. “We didn’t want to be toothless in our approach to a church that has many flaws, but we wanted to be respectful of the heart of the Catholic Church,” he says.

Straughan helps USA TODAY answer questions that come up when watching “Conclave.”

How much of Conclave was actually filmed in the Vatican?

Nobody. “You could never film in the Vatican,” Strawhan says. “We had to come up with an alternative.”

Most of these alternatives were actually located in Rome, which is filled with marble-encrusted buildings from past centuries that may duplicate many of the chambers, staircases, and corridors featured in The Conclave. (One notable exception: the instantly recognizable interiors of the Sistine Chapel were recreated on a sound stage, and Michelangelo’s famous ceiling is a computer-generated replica of the real thing.)

Are the 235 Roman Catholic cardinals really sequestered as jurors until they choose a pope?

Yes. As shown in “Conclave”, once a Vatican official looks at the assembled cardinals and says the words “extra omnes” (or “all out”), the cardinals are only allowed to interact with each other. “There should be no information coming in or out from the outside world that could influence the election in any way,” Straughan says.

However, there are some officials who can act as emissaries if necessary, even if the cardinals themselves cannot leave until a successful vote is cast, meaning one cardinal receives two-thirds of the vote and is elected Pope. “While some people may go back and forth, I’m not sure they’re being used as detectives like in our story,” Straughan says.

Do cardinals going to the conclave spend the night at home?

The cardinals stay at Casa Santa Marta, a fairly simple hostel on Vatican grounds. They are allowed to mingle and socialize in nearby buildings and courtyards, and to dine together in the dining hall where the nuns work.

“Visually you get this strange combination of sheer ancient beauty and enormous scale, contrasted with the almost business-like convention center feel,” Straughan says. “You get this feeling of the big stage when the Sistine Chapel and these people are deciding who is going to represent the Catholics of the world, and then there’s this almost humble feeling behind the scenes. Quite a contrast which makes for a great setting.”

Is the voting process at a papal conclave as formal as depicted in Conclave?

When cardinals meet to elect a pope, they vote four times a day, especially in the first day or two, to determine which candidates are most likely to win a majority of the votes. As shown in Conclave, the voting process is not a noisy affair, but a solemn and ritualistic one. “Every time each cardinal votes, he must go to the bowl where his written vote will be placed and recite the oath (in Latin),” Straughan says.

One by one, the cardinals place the folded ballots on a round plate and place it in an oval urn, pronouncing the oath. As Conclave shows, these ballots are stitched together with a needle and thread and then burned with a chemical to produce either black smoke, signifying deadlock, or white smoke, signifying “habemus papam” – “we have a Pope.”