by Mattie Lucas
Cinema from a Decidedly Queer Perspective
Conclave | 2024
A paranoid thriller set in the cutthroat world of Vatican politics, Edward Berger's Conclave follows an intrepid cardinal named Father Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) whose solemn duty to help select the next pope finds him ensnared in a web of lies, intrigue, and corruption as ambitious cardinals jockey to become the new head of the Catholic Church.
A trans woman gets out of bed and pads across the room to the bathroom. She is naked. She goes to the bathroom. She brushes her teeth. It is a ritual I've performed so many times without a second thought, and now I'm watching it in a movie. I am struck by how commonplace this feels, how incredibly normal. I notice that her body isn't that different from mine. This is not a hyper-sexualized porn star; this is a regular transgender woman living a regular life. Our bodies are so often fetishized that it feels wholly transgressive to see a nude trans woman on screen simply existing - not being used as a sex object or an object of pity, just another woman going through motions that feel so mundane yet so familiar.