In a prologue, we find out that Lenny Belardo (Jude Law), the charismatic main character of The Young Pope, did not die after being taken ill in Venice while addressing the crowds of faithful to whom he had finally shown his face. He is, instead, in a coma, suspended between life and death, cared for by a nun. An unusual red neon cross stands out on the wall behind his bed.
In the following scene, a Mother Superior orders some young nuns to go to bed: we are in a dormitory, also lit by a neon cross. The women get into bed, but after several seconds of silence, they get up, put on high heels and make-up, smoke: the neon cross pulses in time to the hypnotic rhythm of Sofi Tukker’s Good Time Girl. On the back wall behind them a copy of Paolo Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana (1563) gives the room depth. Removing their coifs, the girls become dancers, as the profane invades the sacred in one of the many provocations and contaminations that we expect from Paolo Sorrentino, creator and director of The New Pope.
The very special location of this sensual dance is the Refectory of the benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, nowadays seat of the Fondazione Cini, which in 2007 has promoted the reproduction of the enormous canvas, that was in the structure designed by Andrea Palladio until 1797, when Napoleon ordered the art confiscation in Venice. Since then the Veronese's painting is hanged in the Louvre.
In the same monastery, but at the upper floor, Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800-23) was elected during the papal conclave set here from december 1799 to march 1800, because Rome was occupied by Napoleon’s army.
Alongside Jude Law, the series, broadcast by SKY and produced by The Apartment – Wildside with Haut et Court and Mediapro, stars John Malkovich as the new Pope John Paul III, replacement for the unlucky Pius XIII. Locations used in the 9 episodes include Nervesa della Battaglia, Cortina, Rome, Gaeta and the Hermitage of Santo Spirito in Abruzzo, and of course Venice. (ph. by Gianni Fiorito)