When the actor, 62, thinks about slowing down his workload, he tells himself, "Just shut the f--- up, Ralph, get on with it."

Full of enough catty backstabbing to fulfill any reality TV viewer, Conclave might, on paper, sound like a dry, solemn film about men in red caps and grandiose Catholic rooms, but in practice it is gossipy,

Helmed by Edward Berger, the religious thriller drama ‘Conclave‘ stars Ralph Fiennes as Thomas Lawrence, a British Cardinal who is responsible for conducting the papal conclave following the pope’s death.

There is one sin which I have come to fear above all others: certainty.” That line, delivered by the always reliable Ralph Fiennes, is the core of director Edward Berger’s excellent new papal thriller,

Edward Berger, director of the recent All Quiet on the Western Front, and Stéphane Fontaine, his experienced cinematographer, bring an eye-watering lavishness to the interiors. As the cardinals vape furiously and poke at their smartphones, we feel ourselves living in a kind of phantom anachronism.

There’s nothing normal about this place. Rigid mores and etiquette persist from centuries ago. Elderly men genuflect to kiss the ringed hand of a patriarch, while women are kept in the background. So much extraordinary wealth and influence underpins every action,

Put the two together and you get Conclave, an expertly juicy drama of Catholicism and guilt, built on that loaded question and a crackerjack performance from Ralph Fiennes. The setting is the Vatican,

Ralph Fiennes is Oscar-worthy astonishing - 5/5 Edward Berger’s account of cardinals battling to be the new Pope is a thrilling succession story, and Ralph Fiennes is simply hypnotic