The Cardinal and the Usurper

Let’s play a little game. You’ve heard of visualization, no? Well picture this:
Antipope Bergoglio, The Movie
You’re the screenwriter. How would you tell the story? Which scenes do you include in the scrip, which ones do you omit? I want to play the cinematographer and sound editor. I want to shoot some gripping scenes; some graphic, some majestic, all of them devastating.
Movie opens amid the various oddities of the final month leading to Benedict’s faux abdication, with all the truths contained therein splashed across the screen, culminating with the lightning strike. Then Benedict openly confessing the bifurcation attempt in his final audience, trailing off into the behind the scenes machinations pre-conclave. White smoke, and then the haunting scene from the loggia; the lighting needs to be just right.
You’re visualizing all this in your mind’s eye, right?
From there we have to pick and choose, and cinematic considerations are important. Muslim foot washing is a must, along with wheelchair kissing, vulgar fits of rage, tender caresses with Ricca and Tucco, and of course, heresy-filled homilies (with contradicting subtitles from Trent, anathematizing him). Scenes from the Synods Against the Family will be included. We will frequently cut away to Benedict and Ganswein in the gardens, dialoging, assessing the disaster as it unfolds. And since we are already well beyond an “R” rating, we’re going to have to throw in a scene from Cocco’s place.
But the climax, at least as it stands now, is the scene that played out in St. Peter’s square this week, with 86 year old Cardinal Zen waiting in the cold (45F/8C) with the commoners to deliver a letter to Antipope Bergoglio. HERE
The scene writes itself. There is no dialogue. Just sweeping views of the square, the wind and sky, the basilica, the colonnade, the cardinal and the usurper. Cut to a shot of the Chinese bishops in their homeland, amongst their 60 million faithful, their lives literally hanging in the balance. The soundtrack booms as the letter changes hands.
If the story were fictional, this scene would be left on the cutting room floor by any rational director, for fear of ruining the entire picture with histrionic melodrama.
Would that it were.