#cardinal adeyemi

[stopaskingme]

The curious case of Adeyemi's (missing) watch in Conclave (2024)

the longer watch friend and I think on it, the more it blows our minds how intentional the costumers were wrt to the friggin watches in this movie. If you're interested in watch meta for Lawrence, Benitez, Bellini, Tremblay and Tedesco, I have linked the previous posts :D

This post is about Adeyemi's watch and what it means.

The Different Shorthands the Watches have throughout the movie

Despite like 100 close-ups of hands in Conclave, only six characters are depicted with watches. Only the serious contenders for the papacy.

Before the conclave starts, Watches are windows to a Character

they are quick snapshots of who a character is, or their current state of mind.

Tremblay and Tedesco: Watches with black dials, signalling their roles as antagonists; Bellini and Lawrence: White dials. more on Bellini later. Benitez: Digital watch face, neutral unknown

Two characters stand out because of how plainly the camera shows us their watches

– and then how completely those watches disappear once the conclave begins.

Benitez's Casio in his first full-profile shot, and Lawrence's Orient in the emotionally vulnerable bathroom scene

Which leads into the second role the watches play.

Once the conclave begins, Watches are Signals of Ambition

BENITEZ & LAWRENCE Their watches are gone. Even in settings which you'd expect to see them, like the bedroom. Because they lack any desire to be pope.

What's the point? Well, Adeyemi's Watch.

We see glimpses of it when he was still in the running for the papacy. But that's all we get. Glimpses. His watch cannot be identified.

It can't be accidental, since the movie has been so deliberate about who wears the watches. Rather, the camera refuses details on Adeyemi's watch because there's nothing more about him we needed to know.

ADEYEMI He didn't need to prove himself. He was the 'natural' successor. He led the votes in the first three ballots. He's the closest thing to a shoo-in candidate. That changes, however, when Lawrence comes to confront him. When he pleads with Lawrence to give him a chance, this unidentified watch peeks in and out from under his right wrist (left screenshot). By the following ballot scene, however, that watch has been stripped from him (right screenshot).

To hammer the point home, the camera shows us the individual candidates following the results of the next ballot.

Adeyemi sits with his hands tucked under the table. Tremblay has a watch, but as the new frontrunner, the watch is mostly hidden.

Bellini and Tedesco's watches are full-faced, out in the open. They are still actively chasing the papacy. Lawrence, on the other hand, genuinely doesn't want it, so his hands are firmly under the table.

The One Time Bellini loses his Watch

When Tremblay is outed for simony, his watch goes through the same treatment as Adeyemi's. More interesting to note is that Bellini loses his watch when he was prepared to support a Tremblay papacy.

True, he was in a nightgown when Lawrence shares the incriminating report with him. Most people don't wear watches with their nightgowns. At the same time, Bellini had also given up on his own candidacy.

After Tremblay is out of the running, look who's wearing a watch again!

Lawrence

Most telling of all is Lawrence's watch. The only time it appears after the conclave begins is – you guessed it – WHEN HE VOTES FOR HIMSELF.

And Benitez?

His Casio is hidden even during his game-changing monologue. It only appears in the final voting scene after he's lectured the curia.

Benitez might not have dreamt of becoming pope. Rather he'd grasped the situation at hand and knew what direction he'd steer the Mother Church given the opportunity. And that was enough.

His watch is symbolic proof of his conviction and visual proof of his character.

In short, the watches show up when the candidates need to prove themselves worthy of being the next pope.

They lose their watches when they are no longer eligible.

Going back to ADEYEMI when he realises he's lost his chance, Lawrence places his hand over Adeyemi's right wrist when praying for him, covering where his watch would be. Adeyemi's watch makes its last appearance when Tremblay is outed; his hope rearing its head. But he also realises he doesn't stand a viable chance because the watch is gone when he's clapping for Benitez.

After BENITEZ has been elected Tremblay's hands are beneath the table. The camera lingers only on the crack in his glasses. Bellini's Seiko Dolce is there in its full tank face glory. He was never 'disqualified' from the race. Should there be another conclave in his lifetime, he might run again. Tedesco's Oris out and in even fuller, naked display. He hadn't been 'disqualified' either. He could and would run if he's alive for the next conclave.

And after the conclave?

In the Room of Tears, Benitez holds Lawrence's hands. Benitez wears no watch. There's nothing more we need to know.

We already understand who he is and why he deserves to be Pope.

🐢 Conclave watches part 1 / part 2 / part 3

[outlanderalien]

Ah! Your eminences!

[vosklitsatelny]

Conclave (2024)

[dragonsareawesome123]

The Vape Hit: Live Read Version

Conclave Live Read (2025) presented by Film Independent

[jamtamart]

what will it take to be more than just a man // what will it take to turn men into nothing

[randomfandomss]

Love, peace and homosexuality in the vatican on planet earth 😌🙏

[ltstrikesback]

You Will Never Be Pope

|| Conclave meets last supper, perhaps? Y’all know I love this movie and I know y’all do too. And this took so long you have no idea, so I hope you enjoy!

[angryasiandyk3]

im so normal about them

[xhev1208]

Conclave: 2020, where everything is conducted over Animal Crossing.

[unfortunate-cantaloupe]

I’ll take criticism but only if it’s nice

[mrsimpstabler]

west coast smoker.

[monsieur-de-challant]

CONCLAVE QUIZ

comes back after months of hiatus posts conclave u quiz PLS TELL ME IF YOU LIKED IT AND WHO DID YOU GET

[dragonsareawesome123]

"Put in all the meetings he had that day."

Conclave (2024) dir. Edward Berger Screenplay written by Peter Straughan

[jamtamart]

what will it take to be more than just a man

[andillwriteyouatragedy]

fruitful use of half an hour of my fifteen-hour train ride

[trashcapableofsentience]

no no no you don't get it what REALLY compels me about conclave is how the entire film is a case against the concept of being sequestered. Lawrence repeatedly says 'I can't know about this I'm sequestered BECAUSE I shouldn't know any new information that might affect choosing a new pope', AKA he not just broke the letter of the law but also its SPIRIT in knowing about Adeyemi and Tremblay and the bombs outside. (LITERALLY broke the sacred seal on the late pope's apartment btw if you even care.) But the film agrees that breaking this sequestering (and into a dead man's rooms) is crucial; the cardinals had to know this information in order to ethically select a new pope.

Tedesco wants the old days and mocks the church for being so pressured by the outside world to become more liberal... is that not the idea behind being sequestered? to remove outside influence on the Catholic Church? And does the film not say that this tradition, clinging to the church's past, CANNOT be the way it moves forward into the future lest it begets its own destruction? To ignore the outside is to blind yourself in the name of justice, but true justice is never blind; she must know the context.

The bombs make the outside unavoidable. The church window - the barrier between the Cardinals and the outside world - has quite literally been shattered (by God). The cardinals have no choice but to consider how their decision on the papacy affects the world and therefore how the state of the world must affect their decision. THAT is why Lawrence smiles when he hears the birds; he understands now that all his scheming and breaking sequesterment was not as wretched as he thought but rather holy and necessary.

The Act of God was there to dissuade him from being Pope, yes, but it was also there to break sequesterment. Because the film's thesis is that it's a shit way to choose a leader.