The big news for Netflix has been the release of The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s latest mobster epic which reunites Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Following closely behind it, out now in cinemas on limited release and scheduled to land on the streaming service on December 20, The Two Popes is another Netflix in-house production bringing acting heavyweights together. Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce play the pontiffs of the title, Hopkins as Benedict XVI, Pryce as Pope Francis.
Directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardner), the film revolves around two imagined conversations between the men, shortly before Benedict’s resignation in 2013. The first takes place at Castel Gandolfo and the second in the Sistine Chapel. Pope Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, is in Rome, and it is he who has the intention to quit his day job. He wants to hand in his resignation letter to Benedict, a good few years before he is due to reach the compulsory retirement age. It quickly becomes clear that this is a move that will not be countenanced and, in fact, by the final scenes it is Benedict who will be calling it a day.
