How ‘Conclave’ Imagines the Most Hidden Parts of the Vatican

25.10.2024 - 11:53 / cntraveler.com / Stanley Tucci

When Suzie Davies began preparations to create the ecclesiastical world for Edward Berger’s papal thriller, Conclave, she was immersed in a decidedly different world: that of Saltburn. “We were filming the dining room scene with all the candles and I remember leaving my team after we’d all set it up and hoofing it to Heathrow to get on a plane to Rome.”

Davies pulled what she calls her film "community card" to snag private early morning Vatican tours for key members of production where they could absorb the space separately from the throngs of tourists. Still, there are parts of Vatican City that are off limits. That was no problem for Davies though, who saw the mystery surrounding these spaces as an opportunity for creative license. While spending time immersed in the day to day life of Rome and the Vatican, Davies tells Condé Nast Traveler that she came to really understand it as both a sacred place and one that people live and work everyday, from priests and nuns walking around in liturgical vestments to security guards. (“There’s a duty free shop in the Vatican!” she says. The snacks are amazing.)

Rome itself was as much a character in the film’s production as any of its key cast (which includes Isabella Rossellini, Stanley Tucci, Ralph Fiennes, and John Lithgow). While there were builds created and adapted specifically for the film, Davies says the consummate beauty of Rome did a lot of the heavy lifting. Together with her team, she created a superlative rendition of the Vatican and its surrounding world—a singularly challenging task considering that the Vatican does not allow filming anywhere on its grounds, and that the conclave ritual is notoriously covert. In short: the production design on Conclave is nothing short of a miracle.

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Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave

Can you tell me about the early research you and your team did in Rome?

I decided I wanted to break the story into two visual styles: the hidden part, the Conclave part of the story and the outward aspect of the story. And it became very clear that those two areas needed to feel quite different. We wanted to have more space and more air around the elements that you see of the Vatican that are outward, and that most people have seen.

[Director Edward Berger and I] got to do a tour at seven o’clock in the morning, and we went backwards to the [direction] of the general public so I got to see the Sistine Chapel before it was full of people. We walked around the gardens and we started to feel the essence, this amazing authenticity and depth that Vatican City has. It’s a