Italian Cinema Today

With so much buzz about  Paolo Sorrentino ’s premiere of “The Hand of God” (È stata la mano di Dio) at the upcoming Venice Film Festival and on Netflix, I’m sharing an opinion piece that I wrote last year about both of his HBO series, “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope.” The article was published in the January, 2021 issue of Fra Noi Magazine .  Sorrentino’s acclaimed HBO series “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope” are visually stunning fantasies of the mysterious world behind the Vatican walls. It was announced last year that a third and final series will round out the trilogy. This fascination surrounding the enigma of Catholicism has been present throughout the director’s career but came to a head in his 2013 Oscar winner, “La grande bellezza” (The Great Beauty). If there was a prelude to the HBO series, it would be that film.   From the opening hymns to the main character, Jep Gambardella ( Toni Servillo ), curiously gazing into a parochial school, the l...

It's been announced that John Malkovich will star in The New Pope, Paolo Sorrentino’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed HBO limited series The Young Pope. Jude Law will be back to resume his role as the eccentric American pontiff Lenny Belardo. Production will begin in Italy in November.

Just before his new film Youth premiered at Cannes, Paolo Sorrentino announced that he will be heading to the small screen next along with Jude Law for a show called The Young Pope . The eight-part drama will follow the life of Lenny Belardo, an Italian American who becomes pontiff. The official statement describes him as “a complex and conflicted character, so conservative in his choices as to border on obscurantism, yet full of compassion towards the weak and poor. He is a man of great power who is stubbornly resistant to the Vatican courtiers, unconcerned with the implications to his authority. “During the series, Belardo will face losing those closest to him and the constant fear of being abandoned, even by his God. A man who is however not afraid of undertaking the millennial mission of defending that same God and the world representing Him.” In an interview last year with Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, producer, Lorenzo Mieli said the character would be up there ...