Strange Public Monuments: to Alcide de Gasperi, Europeanist and Founder of Christian Democratic Party

 

One of the stranger monuments we've found in our walks in Rome is this one of stone and grass, to Alcide De Gasperi, a giant in the political history of Italian and European politics, especially immediately after World War II.

We came across the bronze and grass (yes) monument by accident while trying to find another structure on the west side of the Vatican.

The monument is low and the "park" in which it's placed is surrounded by streets and cars. If you look closely, you can see the green of the grass in the photo below of the nameless piazzale - though the short street coming into it on the right here and around it is named via Alcide De Gasperi. The large street to the left of the pie-shaped building is the busy via delle Fornaci, coming off the Gianicolo.

As many times as we've zoomed down via delle Fornaci on our scooter, we had never noticed the monument. It took a trip on foot and some daring crossing of streets to see it.

De Gasperi (1881-1954), an anti-Fascist jailed for years, is considered the founder of the Christian Democratic Party, was Prime Minister in 8 successive governments, and was also a founder of the European Union.

It's difficult (for us, anyway) to read the inscriptions on the brass. They are a mix of quotations from the politician. According to the official Rome tourist website (Turismo Roma) "A number of quotations were engraved in lost wax, in capital letters and without interruption, on the covering, summarizing well De Gasperi's vision of the European community and calling for brotherhood, tolerance and the spirit of sacrifice in community service."

Our photos were taken in 2022. We've been back a few times, and the monument continued to be unkempt. It was restored in 2024, apparently. We also learned, from an article on the restoration, that the monument is within sight of where De Gasperi lived when he served in Rome, at via delle Fornaci 18.  He was from - and died in - Trentino, the very North of Italy. Per the restoration information, the artist Maria Dompè attempted to reproduce a valley in Trentino "with a sloping meadow enclosed by bronze slabs."

An overhead shot on the sculptor's website is perhaps more revealing of her vision:

Dianne

PS - Google's AI thinks the monument is in EUR; it isn't.

"Conclave" - 2 Film Critics' 3-Star (out of 4) Review

 

Conclave ★★★

Because the Papal Conclave began today (May 7), we offer 2 Film Critics' review of the 2024 film by Oscar-winning director Edward Berger.

Availability: The film is being shown again in some theaters nationally and internationally. It is also available on multiple platforms for purchase or rent, including Amazon Video, AppleTV, and Fandango at home. See Just Watch here for future streaming options.

I Doubt, therefore I Am

The Pope has died. His successor will be chosen by the Conclave, an institution at once elitist (the gathered cardinals of the Catholic Church) and democratic (one man/one vote, secret ballots), guided by a Dean (Cardinal Lawrence, Ralph Fiennes) specially selected by the Pope for what will prove a formidable task. There are the theological/institutional differences, of course, with Cardinal Tedesco (an Italian [Sergio Castellitto] whose name translates as “German”—perhaps a stand-in for German Ratzinger, Benedict XVI) at one end of the spectrum, advocating a return to the church’s pre-ecumenical days and looking forward with Crusades-like zeal to war with the heathen Muslims; and at the other end, Cardinal Bellini (the over-exposed, food-show veteran Stanley Tucci, lacking gravitas for the role), mouthing the liberal mantra of diversity, equity, and inclusion. A third player, Cardinal Tremblay of France (John Lithgow, without a French accent), by implication shares Bellini’s liberalism, but his interests are elsewhere.

Above, Ralph Fiennes (front, left) as Cardinal Lawrence

and Stanley Tucci (right) as Cardinal Bellini.

 

What will most concern Lawrence is neither the church’s theological foundation nor its future structure, but its corrupt present. 

The Papacy has long fascinated writers of novels and film. Recent offerings include “The Two Popes” (2019), “The Young Pope” (TV miniseries, 2016, by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino), and “We Have a Pope” (2011, by director Nanni Moretti; in the original Italian release titled “Habemus Papam”). Yet in this latest treatment of the Papacy from Oscar-nominated director Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 2022), what will most concern Lawrence is neither the church’s theological foundation nor its future structure, but its corrupt present. A mere Dean (“just a manager”) of the process, Lawrence functions as a thoughtful, independent, selfless (though not without being tempted) investigator of ethical violations and wrongdoing at the highest levels of the Sacred College of Cardinals.

 

The screenplay is at its core a somewhat old-fashioned detective story and, at the same time, a morality play.

 

Curiously, the rather contrived plot requires that Lawrence regularly violate the requirement that the Conclave be a sequestered sanctuary, free from all outside influences. The screenplay by Peter Straughan (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” 2011), based on Robert Harris’s 2016 eponymous novel, is at its core a somewhat old-fashioned detective story and, at the same time, a morality play, all of it dipped in intrigue. Each of Lawrence’s forays into the informational world outside the Conclave triggers one perverse chain of events after another. Making the central figure a pragmatic, ordinary man, rather than a charismatic spiritual leader, is an interesting choice, though not unheard of in the detective realm, Columbo being the archetype. Berger and Fiennes have created a finely tuned, subtle protagonist.

Though he is less than fully comfortable with his access to information from beyond the walls (including via a computer owned by Sister Agnes [Isabella Rossellini]), Lawrence is practical, crossing ethical lines when he believes it necessary to produce a just result. Like Judge Tanya Chutkan, who released information in the election-interference Trump case during an election season, Lawrence apparently has decided that not to follow an information trail would be to lack the courage of a morally responsible leader.

Less than credible as a dramatic device is Lawrence’s decision to break the seal and enter the dead Pope’s chambers, hoping to find something. Also less than credible are Lawrence’s tense and loud (Tucci, especially) discussions with the major players that take place not in private but in a dormitory hallway and a stairwell.

 

No part of the actual Vatican City State appears on screen.

The Vatican won’t like this film, and certainly did not approve its filming, since no part of the actual Vatican City State appears on screen. Knowledgeable Romans will be amused that the church’s exterior spaces are represented by the massive columns of EUR (miles away, and built by Mussolini’s Fascists), the French Academy, the nymphaeum at Villa Giulia, and the courtyard of the Chiostro del Bramante, among the dozen locations. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, the site of the Conclave, is a reconstruction erected in Rome’s famed Cinecittà studios, and one never sees the artist’s “hand of God.” Otherwise, the film has the feeling, at least, of verisimilitude: the bowl/device in which the ballots are deposited is featured, as is the small furnace in which the counted ballots are burned and the appropriate color added to make the smoke emitted black (a ballot with no majority) or white (a new Pope has been elected). Turtles, which appear at least twice, are a rather over-determined symbol of spiritual independence, and maybe more.

As a woman, even the head nun, Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), left, is not supposed to have a say in the Conclave—except, in another twist in the film, she does.

You’ll see the new Pope selected—a choice at once absurd, overly symbolic, and hardly believable. The new Pope’s identity cleverly and importantly returns the film to Lawrence, who is always at the center of this story, and to a speech he delivers early in the film that arguably articulates the lesson of the morality play. The great danger for those gathered, as Lawrence explains, is in excessive certainty. With certainty there is no doubt, without doubt there is no mystery, and without mystery, no need for faith. Lawrence has doubt aplenty, and just enough faith—in his own skills and values, and in the Conclave process—to be “just” the manager he needs to be.

 

The great danger for those gathered, as Lawrence explains, is in excessive certainty.

 

Despite its flaws, “Conclave” is a highly entertaining film, anchored by a brilliant performance by Ralph Fiennes.

 

He says: I kept waiting for Tucci’s Bellini to say, “best carbonara I’ve ever tasted!"

She says: The “shouters” around Fiennes—Tucci, Lithgow, Castellitto—have the odd effect of making his nuanced performance seem even better.
Box photo at top of review: Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes, front and center) is the manager/detective/pragmatist at the heart of Conclave." Competing for influence are, from left, Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), and Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow).

Date: 2024

Director: Edward Berger

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini

Runtime: 120 minutes

Country: United States, United Kingdom

Language: English, Italian, Spanish, Latin; most non-English lines subtitled in English

Other Awards: 4 wins and 2 other nominations