SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Conclave”, now playing in cinemas.

It’s no secret that the Vatican forbids filming inside the Sistine Chapel, and the headquarters of the Catholic Church would make no exception Edward Bergers “Conclave.”

The film is based on the Robert Harris thriller of the same name Ralph Fiennes like Cardinal Lawrence, who is charged with overseeing the election of a new pope after the current pope dies. It was up to production designer Suzie Davies to take on the enormous task and get creative in recreating one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions, Michelangelo’s piece de resistance.

Enter Rome’s Cinecitta studios – no strangers to re-creations. Davies found incomplete flat-packed scenery from an earlier production. “It was packed down into apartments that were eight by four feet, and we built them back up,” she explains.

But the set needed work on floors, repainting and carpeting. Davies found the local craftsmen who had built the original set and called on them. “The painting team was extraordinary, and we put the Sistine Chapel back together in 10 weeks,” says Davies.

The result was a seamless reconstruction.

Later in the film, during another vote, an explosion rocks the chapel, causing dust and debris to fall on the cardinals. The aftermath of the explosion was all smoke and mirrors, and came along with the magic of the special effects.

A special effects rig was placed as high as possible on the studio roof – “about 60-70 feet high, and they placed flasks filled with lightweight rocks and dust that fall on the cardinals,” Davies explains. Instead of stuntmen, “It was the actors and background artists who were under all that debris. We had to be careful with the dust so people didn’t breathe it in. We did about four takes of that explosion. I had a brilliant props team who would come in and clean everything up, and we’d reset and go again,” says Davies. Although a scene like that can be very time-consuming, “it went pretty quickly because everyone was so prepared. It was military precision.”

The year in which the story takes place remains ambiguous, and Davies and Berger wanted to show how the secretive and exciting world of the Conclave has evolved over the years. “We played with a compilation of what we think we know about the Vatican, and what Edward and I decided would be our world behind closed doors.”

That world was Casa Santa Marta, the residence that housed cardinals during the conclave. Very few priests live in it. With much of the drama taking place there, Davies wanted the world to feel “a little more sinister and hint at something underhanded going on.”

She says, “It was about creating an almost hermetically sealed prison, albeit a very elegant prison, but with modern equipment as well.” Berger embraced the idea of ​​cardinals on their phones, smoking and vaping to add beats to each character. These details helped Davies work out a backstory. “There is not much changing in the rooms where they lived. Some got a better deal than others. How did John Lithgow’s character manage to get a palatial seat?” Davies asks. “Eventually you realize he’s been rolling and shopping the whole time, so he probably paid someone to get that room.”

However, Cardinal Lawrence is not as duplicitous, and Davies leaned into it. “He doesn’t think about getting a better room. He’s probably on the ground floor, next to the elevators.”

Through research, Davies learned that many of the rooms were unused and almost untouched. But it was about details. They have the same bed, but each headboard was a different color, or was it a different color, and it was about who had gold, who had light green, or who had red?”

Davies credits his department heads for the collaboration – cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine and costume designer Lisy Christl. “These rooms on their own would have been very dull and airless in the wrong way, if Stéphane hadn’t lit them up so beautifully, and Lisy dressed those characters in the wonderful costumes.”

Davies worked closely with Fontaine to help deliver the idea of ​​opposing themes. Davies explains, “We found that the whole film was about balancing light and dark, honesty and lies, gold and silver, contemporary and traditional.” While she incorporated it into her sets, Fontaine worked it into her lighting. Casa Santa Marta a visually darker world with linear patterns and darker lighting. In contrast, “The Sistine Chapel was lighter and had a sense of freedom,” says Davies.