VATICAN CITY—The scene opens with a cleric turning up uninvited to a secret meeting of cardinals, declaring his right to join the conclave to elect the next pope . Infighting among cardinals ensues, and dormant scandals are dredged up for political aims.

Wait, you might say, haven’t I seen this movie? It sounds like the intrigue-laden, Oscar-winning film “Conclave,” starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal who oversees a papal election beset by rivalries.

Except this is the real-life version. It, too, has an Anglophone prelate , Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an American steering the factious assembly.

There have been whispering campaigns against the front-runners—Cardinal Pietro Parolin , a 70-year-old Italian and career diplomat, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, of the Philippines. The aim is to make them living proof of a conclave adage: He who enters a pope, leaves a cardinal.

Parolin, for good measure, has shown he won’t be pushed around. Since the deliberations began, he has revealed the existence of not one but two letters from beyond the grave by Pope Francis , excluding one of the cardinals from the sacred vote.

In the actual conclave, as in the film, cardinals from around the world have converged on Vatican City. They have been meeting in an austere conference center in preparation for their entry into the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday to cast ballots that will be burned to maintain secrecy.

Real-life cardinals are acutely aware of the film’s influence, not just on popular culture but also on their own perceptions.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has been identified as one of the conclave’s front-runners. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle gestures during a mourning Mass for Pope Francis on the ninth day of Novendiali (nine days of mourning after the Pope’s funeral) at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, May 4, 2025. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

“Each scene is worth a thousand words,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official. Czerny said he hasn’t actually seen the movie, but he added, “It supplies everyone else with a whole lot of images, feelings and expressions to appreciate the conclave, which no amount of talking, reading can supply.”

Not all of the movie’s plot twists—spoiler alert—have been echoed at the real event. A terrorist attack hasn’t blown a hole in the Sistine Chapel, nor has there been a whiff of the film’s controversial denouement.

But the film’s portrayal of how cardinals go about the business of electing a pope—from the mundane details of cardinals’ dorm life to the Machiavellian maneuverings of conclave factions—isn’t entirely off base.

Cardinals arriving at the Vatican from far-flung dioceses in Latin America, Africa and Asia are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, just getting to know colleagues as they line up at the coffee machine or break bread at cafeteria-style tables. They are being swarmed by reporters every time they step outside the walls of the world’s smallest sovereign state. Paparazzi prowl for anyone wearing a red zucchetto skullcap or a pectoral cross, following them to trattorias and cafes to chronicle their meals.

The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that one cardinal staying in the Vatican’s guesthouse, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, didn’t realize that the tiny liquor bottles in his room’s minibar weren’t free. After finishing all of the bottles with a group of colleagues, he found them on his bill. “He was a bit upset,” the daily reported.

Other cardinals are right at home. The Italians, in particular, appear well-versed on how to leverage intrigues to gain an edge on rivals. Their machinations are enhanced by a cadre of  Vaticanisti , the eagle-eyed Vatican watchers who have breathlessly documented the tensions.

The arrival of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu at the gates of Vatican City for the start of the general congregations—the cardinals’ preparatory debates—stunned his brethren. Becciu, who once functioned as Francis’ chief of staff and the head of his saint-making department, was found guilty by a Vatican court in 2023 of embezzlement and fraud , sentenced to 5½ years in prison and stripped of his administrative powers.

FILE PHOTO: Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin walks after kissing the cross during the Good Friday Passion of the Lord service in Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo

Many cardinals had assumed that Becciu, having fallen from grace , wouldn’t dare show his face at the conclave. But there Becciu was as the deliberations got under way, arguing that he was entitled to join the conclave since the pope had never taken away his title as cardinal. He is appealing his conviction.

The showstopper came when Parolin, one of the front-runners, disclosed the existence of two separate letters said to be written by Francis before his death . The letters, which were then read aloud before the cardinals, stated that Becciu should be barred from entering the Sistine Chapel, according to cardinals present.

“One can only imagine Becciu’s face the moment that letters signed by the pope were suddenly produced,” said Austen Ivereigh, a seasoned Vaticanista and former adviser to the late Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of the U.K. “The drama of real conclaves is greater than the one depicted in the movie.”

Chastened, Becciu withdrew his demand to vote, citing the need to preserve the “serenity of the conclave.”

“I have decided to obey the will of Pope Francis, as I have always done,” Becciu added.

Cardinals sympathetic to Becciu cast Parolin’s move as heavy-handed, questioning the legal weight of letters that bore only the pope’s initial “F” rather than his full signature.

Days later questions swirled around Parolin’s fitness for office when the conservative Italian daily Il Tempo reported that he suffered a sudden bout of high blood pressure in late April, triggering an “alert” at the Vatican. Medics assisted the senior prelate for an hour, the newspaper reported.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni denied the report, saying Parolin didn’t receive medical assistance.

Parolin hasn’t been the only prelate with a target on his back. Tagle, the Filipino cardinal who has rocketed to fame as the “Asian Francis” for his common touch, has been under fire after the conservative Catholic advocacy group LifeSiteNews surfaced a video of his singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” on a stage. The footage of the crooner cardinal instantly went viral, with LifeSiteNews branding the song an “atheist anthem.”

It mattered little that the clip didn’t show Tagle singing the tune’s most controversial lyrics: “Imagine there’s no heaven” and “…no religion, too.”

Tagle and Parolin have been taking heat from other quarters as well. BishopAccountability.org, which tracks abuse cases around the world, took aim at both prelates during a Friday news conference, accusing them of failing to properly investigate clerical sexual abuse.

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri stands, ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope, as seen from Rome, Italy, May 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the group, conceded that she hadn’t found any evidence that Tagle was directly involved in a coverup. Rather, Tagle’s and Parolin’s statuses as papabili , or popeables, meant that they were singled out for scrutiny.

“Today we’re just looking at the two front-runners,” said Barrett Doyle. “I haven’t found anyone else on those lists, though, who I’d feel great about being pope.”

Write to Stacy Meichtry at Stacy.Meichtry@wsj.com , Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com and Ian Lovett at ian.lovett@wsj.com

Cardinal Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez walks, ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope, as seen from Rome, Italy, May 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marko Djurica