A Miraculous Materialism: Lines of Flight inWe Have a PopeandCorpo Celeste

Abstract

This article considers Nanni Moretti's We Have a Pope ( Habemus Papam, 2011) and Alice Rohrwacher's Corpo Celeste (2011) via the notion of lines of flight as developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. We argue that, in spite of stylistic and thematic differences, the two films present clear similarities since they highlight and address conflicts and tensions existing within the contemporary Catholic religious order. Both films present cracks and horizons of becoming within the institutionalised Catholic Church, tracing possible paths of transformation for viewers aligning with and following the two main characters. We argue, concurrently, that Corpo Celeste – because of specific formal and conceptual choices – engenders a complete reimagining of the transcendent realm within a miraculous or animist materialist and immanent paradigm.