The Films and Music That Meant the Most to Pope Francis

April 24, 2025 | 03:57 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Pope Francis passed away at the age of 88 on Monday, April 21, 2025, just one day after Easter. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church had held a deep appreciation for the arts, particularly film and music, since his childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, Pope Francis came from a family with roots in northern Italy. As a child, he was introduced to Italian cinema, which sparked a lifelong love for movies.

"I owe my cinema culture above all to my parents who took us to the cinema a lot," Pope Francis said in 2013, just a few months after being elected head of the Roman Catholic Church, as quoted by Deadline.

Fellini's La Strada Left a Lasting Mark

In the same 2013 interview, Pope Francis revealed that his favorite film was La Strada, an Italian drama directed by Federico Fellini and released in 1954. The film won over 50 awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The 104-minute film stars Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina, a vulnerable young woman mistreated by a brutal circus strongman named Zampano, played by Anthony Quinn.

"I identify with that film, in which there is an implicit reference to Saint Francis," said Pope Francis, referring to the themes of love and suffering central to the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi, after whom he took his papal name.

In May 2024, Pope Francis once again spoke about his fondness for the film during the 70th anniversary celebration of La Strada. His comments were shared through a 37-second video posted by Vatican News on YouTube.

"As a child I saw many films by Fellini, but La Strada always stayed in my heart. The film that begins with tears and ends with tears, begins on the seashore and ends on the seashore, but what stayed with me most was the scene with the madman and the stone in which he gives meaning to the life of the girl," Pope Francis said.

Aside from La Strada, another film that left a strong impression on him during his youth was Rome, Open City (1945), a war-time classic directed by Roberto Rossellini. According to the Pope, post-World War II cinema played a crucial role in healing and reconciliation.

"Cinema is a great tool for bringing people together. Especially in the post-war period, it contributed in an exceptional way to the rebuilding of the social fabric," he stated during a 2019 address to the Catholic Cinema Operators Association.

A Passion for Classical Music

Pope Francis also had a deep love for classical music. His music library, housed at the Pontifical Council for Culture, contains nearly 2,000 CDs and 19 vinyl records, according to the Vatican cardinal who curated the collection.

America Magazine reported that most of the collection consists of classical music. While some recordings came from his personal archive, many were gifts received over the years.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, shared that the collection includes albums by Edith Piaf, Argentine tango songs (especially those by Astor Piazzolla) and a 25-CD collection of Elvis Presley’s gospel songs.

Cardinal Ravasi also revealed that Pope Francis once told him his love of music began with listening to opera programs on the radio with his mother when he was a child.

"Among musicians I love Mozart, of course. The ‘Et incarnatus est’ from his Mass in C minor is matchless; it lifts you to God! I love Mozart performed by Clara Haskil. Mozart fulfills me. But I cannot think about his music; I have to listen to it," the Pope told Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, in 2013.

In 2022, Pope Francis was spotted on camera leaving a record store in Rome, holding an album in his hands as he walked away.

Editor’s Choice: Pope Francis' Resting Place: 2 Facts About Santa Maria Maggiore

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