{"id":53565,"date":"2025-07-07T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=53565"},"modified":"2025-08-29T19:17:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T23:17:15","slug":"cinematic-swipe-the-phantom-conclave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/07\/cinematic-swipe-the-phantom-conclave\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinematic Swipe: The Phantom Conclave"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Phantom<\/a>
Image via Focus Features\/Lucasfilm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Be it coincidence, homage or the outright hope that they don\u2019t get caught aping someone else\u2019s movie, filmmakers have been replicating the work of those who have gone before them for some time now. Every now and then we like to stop and point out one of those instances.<\/em><\/p>\n

Filmmakers often have to substitute one shooting location for another for a number of different reasons. Look at the many cities that have, to various degrees of success, stood in for New York City. In George Lucas’s case, shooting the Star Wars<\/strong> films on location in a galaxy far away is out of the question, leaving him with no option but to use more Earthly locations for the shoot.<\/p>\n

We’ve already looked at<\/a> how George Lucas looked to the Plaza de Espana and its mix of Baroque Revival, Renaissance Revival and Moorish Revival architecture in Seville for one part of the planet Naboo for Attack Of The Clones<\/strong> (though it probably didn’t hurt that it was also used in David Lean’s classic Lawrence Of Arabia<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

But three years before, he looked to another bit of classic European architecture for another intergalactic location – The Royal Palace of Caserta<\/a> in southern Italy.<\/p>\n

Built in the 18th century, the Palace is considered the last great example of Baroque architecture and the largest former royal residence in the world. But even if you aren\u2019t familiar with Italian Renaissance architectural history, the style itself does exude a certain quality that helps set the stage for both an intergalactic palace of royalty and the ornate Apostolic Palace of Vatican City where the Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals gather on the occasion of electing a new pope.<\/p>\n

Director Edward Berger’s adaptation of Robert Harris’s novel, Conclave<\/strong>, about what goes on behind the closed-doors of one of these Papal elections understandably didn’t get permission to film in the actual Vatican in Rome. But the halls, and in this particular case, a stairway, of the Royal Palace of Caserta certainly do provide an acceptable substitute. The productions of 2009’s Angels & Demons<\/strong> and 2019’s Netflix film The Two Popes<\/strong> must have thought so as well, as it shot there as a replacement location for the Vatican.<\/p>\n

So is this really a swipe, or just an instance of two filmmakers using the same location? Well, to stretch a point, both stories can be seen to be about religious orders in the midst of a contested change of who wields the governmental or administrative power in their respective worlds. Also, if it is good enough to point out where George Lucas is reusing filming locations from movies that may have inspired his own work, it is not too far out of bounds to suggest that Berger may be doing something similar here. See both photos below of the Royal Palace’s Royal Staircase and their use in The Phantom Menace<\/strong> and Conclave<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image via Lucasfilm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Image via Focus Features<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes you just can’t film where you want to set your story – Be it the Vatican or a planet in a galaxy far, far away. <\/div>\n

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