'The New Pope' like 'The Young Pope' connects traumas from Belardo and Brannox’s childhoods to spirituality
Just like his earlier 'The Young Pope', Paolo Sorrentino’s 'The New Pope' looks at spirituality through the lens of trauma. Ordinary people turn to the idea of God, or become avowed atheists, depending on their experiences (both distressing and uplifting) in combination with their individual personalities.
Sorrentino's storytelling in the Vatican dares to present the Pope, the "earthly representative of Christ" for Catholics, as people just like us. In addition, he adds just a touch of mysticism to bring in that element of unexplainable that we all encounter in our short sojourns on earth.
It is a humanizing take but it is also a critical look at how Catholic spirituality is guided by each Pope, who in turn is driven by all that he has experienced and how he has processed it. It's an interesting directorial exercise given how the current Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) has been accused of playing a passive role in the face of the cruelty unleashed by Argentina's last military dictatorship in the 1970s and early 80s, and for refusing to intercede even when fellow priests were taken and tortured by the military junta. Pope Francis has revealed that he sought the help of a psychoanalyst for six months when he was 42, caught between the military junta and his leadership role of the Jesuit order in the country at the time.
It is this intersection between spiritual abstracts and the concrete material realities of human life that Sorrentino continually returns to in his Pope series. But rather than the political fallibilities, he has chosen to concentrate on something of a more ubiquitous experience that many find easy to identify with -- childhood trauma.
Granted that both 'The Young Pope' and the 'The New Pope' focus on rather theatrical traumas to deal with but at the core of both the Popes' spiritual drives is parental abandonment. Both men are required to grow beyond the childish petulance of being hurt to become men who are capable of shouldering the burden of being the "Supreme Pontiff".
Lenny Belardo aka Pope Pius XIII (Jude Law) was cold and remote, asking his followers to turn away from hedonism because his parents orphaned him to selfishly pursue their own pleasures in 'The Young Pope'. Pope Francis III aka Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich) is a mopey eccentric, abandoned by his living parents who tremble in rage each time they see him as they grieve deeply (and inconsolably) about the death of John's twin, Adam.
His life has been spent seeking attention and affection that has been denied to him by his parents. For him, the Pope's job is a way to absorb love from his followers that was denied to him growing up and as an adult after his brother's death. Since he is fragile and needy, he wants the Christianity he represents to minister to the fragile and the vulnerable like him.
In 'The Young Pope', we finally see Lenny evolve and set aside his childish hatred of his parents as he shapes himself to "earn God's love". It remains to be seen how Sorrentino will have John deal with his fragility and feelings of abandonment.
'The New Pope' airs on Monday on HBO from 9 p.m. onwards.