The secondary plot

I think that it may have been to show Karil's human side as versus his saint like demeanor. Although calling it a secondary plot may be a stretch as it wasn't that long. I wonder how much of the book was devoted to her?

Gene

My best guess is that as already stated, David Jansens part was to explain to non Catholics and Catholics as to what the traditions were, and so I guess they had to have some sort of plot to justify his being in the film.

Because it interweaves with so much of the main plot:

1.) A Catholic with a "morals" problem.
2.) George Faber, the Journalist-- and Catholic with the morals problem--
has a wife who is an M.D. who is trying to save the life of an elderly Jewish man in an old section of Rome. She runs into Kiril who has dressed as a "simple priest" to get out of the Vatican to look around at his new "parish" and she asks him to go to pharmacy to get the old man's medicine. As Kiril comes to the poor apartment to deliver the medicine, to the surprise of the family-- and Ruth Faber-- he starts to pray the Jewish prayer (for the dying?).
Afterward, Ruth is able to ask the priest, "Why is my marriage this way?" And Kiril speaks eloquently about "You have only one place to look: Love." "Where did you last see love?" This conversation with Ruth Faber speaks to and enhances why this new Pope would make the international decision that he makes in the end.

3.) Pretty people. In a Hollywood movie, you need to see "pretty" or at least "interesting-looking" people. The party scene-- where George Faber runs into his girlfriend and his wife-- makes the movie "not dull visually." It would be difficult to have a movie about nothing but old men.


4.) George Faber's adultery introduces the topic of SEX. Need I say more about that?

Flanagan

The ‘romantic’ subplot seemed to be one of three kinds of love and their trials that intersect in this story. The romantic plot intersects with the Pope, when Dr. Ruth Faber confides in him about her marriage, and he suggests that she look for the love that she has lost. She then rejuvenates, but her husband, even after leaving the other woman, seems unrepentant and unsympathetic to his wife’s pain and jealousy, unaware of her sign of forgiveness. Another one was the love between the spiritual brothers, the brotherhood relationship of the Pope, Father Telemond, and the older Cardinal, which is directly addressed in the last part of the film, when the Cardinal confesses his jealousy for not having the attention and affection after years of long service, and the Pope confessing his preference for the struggling priest. These relationships reconcile with love and understanding. The third love is the love of the individual for the Church, as expressed dramatically by Father Telemond who grapples with articulating his faith in more modern terms vs the traditional doctrines of the Church. As he says, “I hate her, but cannot leave her (her referring to the Church)." Though silenced for his views, it is done with compassion by the Pope. One might also consider the relationship of Kiril to Olivier's character as a fourth angle - when he describes their intimate relationship based on torture the many years before, and now depends on him to help him in the saving of his nation going to war. The dependence and trust is based on that oddly formed intimacy. And that trust is upheld by the now Pope Kiril, which ultimately translates to an expression of greater love, forgiveness and sacrifice when he announces to the crowd that he will donate the Church's wealth for the cause of the starving.

A "bit out of place" is an euphemism!

----------------------
http://mulhollandcinelog.wordpress.com/