The Pope and the hit parade

John, Paul, George, Ringo — and John Paul II

Charlotte Metcalf

07 November 2007

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A musical DVD starring John Paul II is released this month

The DVD is a 60-minute compilation of footage of the late Pope cut to music and it includes Vatican archive of his visits to Africa, Auschwitz, Brazil, Britain and the Middle East. What makes the DVD different from the pious offerings you find in the gift shops around the Vatican is that the footage is edited with material shot by Mimmo Verduci, known in Italy for his avant-garde pop promos and commercials. Verduci is a daring choice, but even more controversial is the fact that John Paul’s words are enhanced by a background soundtrack by British composer Simon Boswell.

Apart from his past rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, Boswell is an agnostic and a divorcee, now living in sin with the actress Lysette Anthony. When I ask Vincent Messina, the producer of the DVD, why he chose such an inappropriate heathen, he chuckles. ‘You British have such quaint ideas about how the Vatican operates. Simply, Simon is the best in the world. No one asks if he’s Catholic.’ Messina explains that Boswell’s agnosticism was partly an advantage. Had a Catholic composed the music, ‘We would have had an expected result — something too shy, too careful, too afraid. Simon is not reverential or influenced. That’s important.’

The DVD is divided into ten chapters that range from the Ten Commandments to the papal funeral itself. Throughout, John Paul is eloquent in several languages and his words are often more reminiscent of a United Nations directive than a message from God. ‘Forgiveness is the condition for reconciliation,’ he says over shots of him with Orthodox priests. In Brazil, we see images of shocking poverty cut with swooping helicopter shots of the iconic statue of Jesus that towers over Rio. All the while the Pope’s rhythmic voice soothes us, ‘God reaches all, especially where there is suffering and anguish, in hospitals, prisons, homeless zones, breadless, loveless.’ Boswell uses everything in his creative repertoire, from trip-hop to classical choral music, to weave a richly textured musical background for the Pope’s words and often succeeds in making even the most childlike sentiment resonate with spiritual authority. ‘Simon is a musical genius,’ says Messina. ‘If he had been born in America not Britain, he’d be the world’s number one composer.’