Original subtitles

They are all distortions of love.

Hysteria of one sort or another.

That's how the Holy Father defined them.

Do we know each other?

You are...

Sofia Dubois.

Tomas Altbruck's wife, everybody knows you.

And I am...

Leopold Essence.

Whom no one knows.

What were you saying just now?

Follow the love, I was saying.

That's where you will find failure.

Excuse me, but... who are you?

I am the second most intelligent man in the world.

While we're on that subject

is it possible to call...

Tomas Altbruck a "man"?

Follow the love...

Sofia.

♪ When I said it out loud it wasn't as strong as it was in my head ♪

♪ I tried not to think about it, so it came back louder ♪

♪ I think it's been about a year since I became a snob ♪

♪ Decided not to play along, so it grew bigger ♪

♪ Me and my head have become very, very, very close ♪

♪ We decided not to tell you, to tell you about it ♪

♪ We're just gonna play it safe Do what we know ♪

♪ Play it cool, lay it low Not tell you about it ♪

♪ And here I am playing by myself ♪

♪ Me and my superiority complex ♪

♪ And here I am playing by myself ♪

♪ Me and my inferiority contest ♪

♪ I'm not winning, but I'm having a very good time ♪

♪ You can call me ♪

♪ You can call me ♪

♪ You can call me the good time girl ♪

♪ When I said it out loud, it didn't sound as good ♪

♪ I couldn't be as proud as my original thought ♪

♪ I'm not trying to whisper what should be bought ♪

♪ But I can't imagine being out of control ♪

♪ I knocked off the top, my head and I ♪

♪ When I'm all alone but I'm in my prime ♪

♪ Don't want the throne when I'm doing just fine ♪

♪ Just as long as I'm having a real good time ♪

♪ You can call me ♪

Who did you prefer, Pius XIII or Francis II?

I knew Pius XIII better.

So Pius XIII, then. Why?

- Because he believed in me. - I believe in you too.

But will you believe in me?

I'll give what's owed to you to Fabiano.

No, you will give it to me.

Fabiano no longer exists, for me or for you.

And I will decide the amount.

Fifteen thousand a visit.

As it should be.

Before you arrived, Attanasio would scream all night.

For 20 years, no one in this house got any sleep...

but now he sleeps like a baby.

Thanks to you.

And you, Ester...

how are you?

Are you calm like Attanasio

or stormy like the sea?

Stormy.

Because you see the danger?

- What danger? - Pleasure.

A pleasure you didn't experience before...

didn't long for...

didn't even know existed.

An unexpected pleasure is seeping into you.

A sensation you hadn't reckoned with.

I know what I'm talking about, Ester.

I know.

A mother is capable of...

anything in order to...

I have to talk to you about something, but I don't know how.

Attanasio is not the only one.

I don't understand.

Attanasio is not the only one and...

I'm not the only mother who suffers.

There are lots of us, Ester.

Lots of well-off, unhappy parents

with children no one wants to look at

because nature has turned against them.

They are all waiting for you, Ester.

You have a gift which you are finally beginning to recognise.

- What gift? - The gift of human warmth.

You are a saint, Ester.

I'm a whore.

Do you know what the difference

is between a whore and a saint?

None.

♪ A day you laid in the evenin' shore ♪

♪ Upon my bridges and there's still no word ♪

♪ All this trouble in a day's work ♪

♪ And taste the remorse ♪

♪ Adding fuel to the fire ♪

♪ Doubt that they will find you ♪

Forgive me, Eminence, it's late.

Have I disturbed you?

What have you discovered about Spalletta

Guicciardini and your husband?

All three of them frequent the same underage girl.

- At the same time. - I see.

You don't seem particularly perturbed.

I knew about Spalletta already.

Guicciardini and your husband are laymen.

They concern me only up to a certain point.

That's all you have to say?

129 breaths, then a sigh.

- So they are still broadcasting? - Yes.

It's not the only new development, there is another.

A certain threesome who are operating

in a decidedly opaque manner.

Both at the financial level

I am referring to various unscrupulous operations

carried out by our own financial organisation

and at the private level

the moral level, to be precise.

Would you like me to elaborate?

I detest politics and gossip in equal measure

but in this little state of ours, it seems impossible for even the Pope

to avoid matters of unprecedented vulgarity.

I am delighted to be here and help you.

That is convenient, Eminence, for only you can help me

as it's you we're talking about.

We need to rethink things.

Certain behaviours, if made public

would expose me and people would say

John Paul III does nothing.

Allow me to explain, Holy Father.

Altbruck and I are making Guicciardini happy.

In exchange, he has dissuaded the Prime Minister

from taking lethal measures.

Repealing the eight per thousand wasn't the only item on the table.

They were even considering introducing

a tax on Church property

effective retroactively.

Let me remind you that we have never paid taxes

on our properties.

Do you have any idea what that would mean

in economic terms for the Church?

A catastrophe.

The Church doesn't want that, nor obviously

do those directly involved.

There are only two people

who could divulge that agreement between

Guicciardini, Altbruck and me.

One is you

but you and I have...

already affirmed our mutual affection

rather than any inclination to blackmail.

The other is the Secretary of State

who, however, has always tended

toward a complete and total autonomy, even in regard to the Pope.

And who pursues mysterious interests

that are completely unknown to everyone, but himself.

So, regarding the Secretary of State

the situation is far more volatile

and you, Your Holiness

are the only one who can defuse it.

Tomas Altbruck and Spalletta are laundering money.

They are paying Guicciardini through offshore companies

withdrawing funds from our financial structure.

I make no moral judgment regarding these operations.

For me, it's merely a question of expediency.

Sooner or later, some enterprising journalist

will stick his nose in our business and uncover everything

and you will be dragged into the ensuing scandal.

Scandal leaves me indifferent, as does reputation.

Those are concerns for the petite bourgeoisie

a class to which I do not belong.

I was taught proper form

polished to perfection becomes mystical.

As you like, Your Holiness.

You know...

Eminence...

I'm saying this for your own good.

Perhaps it's...

time you took a step back.

I don't understand. What do you mean?

Please, it would pain me to spell it out for you.

You understand perfectly well what I mean.

I am the longest-serving Secretary of State in the history of the Church.

There must be a reason.

There are hundreds, I'm sure

but since you already hold the record for service to the papacy

why not use the network

you have painstakingly constructed over decades

and the vast wealth of knowledge and experience you've acquired

as a bequest to a new generation

represented by a new Secretary of State, say...

someone like Cardinal Assente?

Are you asking or ordering me?

I do not like to have to choose

and I do not like giving orders.

I do. I adore giving orders.

It's my whole life.

Schedule the interview.

I'm ready.

I was on my way to see you.

- How are you? - Tense.

Essence planted a cockroach in my car.

Do you think he was trying to intimidate me, Eminence?

A rather crude form of intimidation, but yes

they want to make sure you don't talk.

- What am I supposed to do? - Don't talk.

What's wrong? You look different, you look lifeless.

Napoli lost.

You wanted to see me, Eminence?

Yes, rather urgently. I am transferring you.

- Effective immediately. - You are promoting me?

Even better, I am making you a missionary.

Where am I going?

To Kabul.

Kabul? But...

- There are no Catholics in Kabul. - Exactly.

What does a missionary do? He begins.

Why are you doing this?

Because in Kabul, there are no paedophile priests

whose sins need to be covered.

Goodbye, Hernández.

I have to talk to you.

Imperiously and in violation of all your demands

I have made some decisions for a number of you.

Sister Melanie, you will receive

psychological assistance twice a week free of charge.

Why? This is outrageous!

Because Sister Melanie is a kleptomaniac.

Sister Ivanka, on the other hand

will be transferred to Sister Suree's care.

- She will work for the Pope. - But why?

Because she is continually mistreated and sexually harassed

by three sisters who shall remain nameless.

Discretion, let it be remembered through the centuries

has always been one of the greatest attributes of the Secretary of State.

Reverend Mother, you never noticed

Sister Ivanka's suffering

but I do not reproach you in the least.

You didn't notice it

because you are preoccupied by something at the base of your breast.

It is all you think about

but you cannot bring yourself to confront the issue.

So I decided to confront it for you.

You have an appointment at the Gemelli Hospital

on Tuesday morning at nine with Dr Villar

one of the best oncologists in Rome.

How is it going?

Fine.

But I'm scared.

Don't be, I have thought about you too.

I pretended that you sisters presented me

with a request to be allowed to receive orphans inside the convent

and I have authorised your request.

Caterina's baby will be the first pretend orphan you will receive.

Every now and then, with every precaution

you will let Faisal see the baby inside the gardeners' shed.

Not here, it is too dangerous here.

How do you know all these things about us?

Because I am the longest-serving

Secretary of State in the history of the Church

and I have spent my life informing myself.

And now for you, Sister Lisette...

I have something to say to you first, Eminence.

The Wi-Fi is slow because you slowed it deliberately.

You're afraid that our protest will spread.

I told you that you would be a formidable adversary.

At what point is our request to meet with the Holy Father?

At a dead end

because as of today, I am no longer the Secretary of State.

When I leave here, I will submit my resignation

and it will be accepted.

So you will have to file a new request

with the new Secretary of State, Cardinal Assente.

What do you advise us to do, Eminence?

To carry on with your battle.

You have not one, but a thousand reasons to.

Thank you, Eminence.

Do you know what is so awful

about these endless battles over rights?

There is no room left for poetry.

What are you thinking of naming him?

We haven't decided yet.

May I suggest you name him Angelo, like me?

- And if it's a girl? - Still Angelo.

It's a unisex name.

♪ I sigh here, laying gently ♪

♪ A murderer, and then you touch ♪

♪ Saw you running hard ♪

♪ You faced to clear the frame ♪

♪ I saw your chest still racing ♪

♪ I felt an urge to reach, but ♪

I'll see you on Thursday?

No, Ester, our relationship ends here.

What?

Why?

Attanasio, and the others too, they are tired of this.

Even they get bored by routine.

Attanasio is not tired of me.

You're not a girl anymore, Ester.

And we found some African women

who cost a lot less

and are much younger than you.

Besides, you need to think about your future.

You were poor

we've made you well-off.

Now you have a nice house, a babysitter...

Go find yourself a normal husband.

Do something else.

What did you expect?

That this would go on forever?

That's not the point.

What is the point then?

The point is...

is that I need Attanasio.

That's exactly what's not going to work.

What are you saying?

Sex, yes? Love, no?

- Precisely. - I don't understand.

You're such a fool, Ester.

Sex has no value because it lives and dies in the present.

But love doesn't.

Love is dangerous because it looks to the future.

What sort of future could there be for you and Attanasio?

Every Thursday night when I come here, that's the future.

And you wouldn't have to pay another penny, if that's an issue.

No.

It ends here.

Attanasio doesn't return your love.

I see.

Only you can love Attanasio, right?

That's exactly right, Ester.

Only I can love Attanasio.

In every sense.

Holy Father, I beg you

I implore you, please, stop my hand.

Shall I bring your box, sir?

I think I'll manage without. Thank you, Danny.

Do you think they'll watch me on telly, my parents?

Oh, yes, sir.

I do.

You're trembling.

So am I.

Holy Father, thank you.

Words aren't enough to express my gratitude.

Answering our questions in a worldwide broadcast

is an unparalleled privilege for us and...

and this is the first time that such a thing has happened

a pontiff agreeing to a live, free-ranging interview.

Thank you.

Well then, let's get started.

We've come to know John Paul III

but we would also like to get to know Sir John Brannox.

Holy Father, just who is John Brannox?

A priest who had, or has

the good fortune to be more loved by God than he is by himself.

And where did you grow up?

I spent almost my entire life

on our family's estate on the outskirts of London

together with my father and my mother

once upon a time, my twin brother Adam

and a thousand or so fallow deer.

Your brother, Adam.

Your youth, Holy Father, was scarred by a sorrowful event.

One day, while you were skiing together

your brother suddenly took ill and died.

I understand that the two of you were very close.

How did your life change after that tragic event?

My grief

like all great sorrows

cannot be expressed in words, the dictionary...

does not contain the adequate words.

My life changed, but more importantly, my faith changed.

Before Adam's death, life was

a long and quiet river taken for granted.

Perhaps pure, ritualistic, even.

But almost immediately after Adam's passing

a secret and scorching religiosity

penetrated me, something rocky and hidden.

I closed myself off from the world.

But that closure...

began a sort of hidden life of the heart.

What Cardinal Newman might have referred to

as "the secret actions of the heart".

And when the Holy Spirit breathed in me

and my life changed again

I was made Pope and Bishop of Rome

I realised that the time had come

for me to offer up to the Catholics of the world

my secret devotion.

An active devotion, then?

C... Yes, an...

active devotion.

What does it consist of? And...

what are your priorities?

Pardon?

What does it consist of and what are your priorities?

My priority is evil.

Evil that...

must be looked at openly

without hypocrisy

without distinction

without value scales.

Evil is evil.

Well, in that case, if you have no objection

I'd like to explore with you, one at a time

all of the aspects of this evil

that assails the Church.

I'm sure that

you'd be happy to tell us how the Church intends to proceed.

One of the most urgent themes

is the wave of sex-abuse scandals

that's swept over priests, bishops and cardinals...

Let's break off the interview.

Are you mad? We're live, this is being broadcast worldwide.

...to stop all this?

Believe me, he is not going to make it.

Of course he will. He's just a little bit nervous.

The Holy Father knows better than anyone how to take the stage.

- You don't get it, do you? - Get what?

He's in withdrawal, damn it!

Excuse me.

Forgive me, Blessed Father

if I have been loved.

And if I have loved.

Forgive me, Blessed Father

for it brought me pleasure.

♪ I thought of leaving next to you ♪

♪ Show talked windows ♪

♪ Cold raincoats ♪

♪ Slow sparked candles ♪

♪ Fought in the storms ♪

♪ Show talked windows ♪

♪ Cold raincoats ♪

♪ Slow sparked candles ♪