St. Philip Neri renouncing the cardinalate

Historical accuracy aside, you couldn't make someone renounce the cardinalate any more dramatic than that. First, have a bunch of gay-ish tailors from the Vatican harass an old pious guy who just wants to pray and be good with shining shoes, red silk stockings and a cardinals hat, then wrap the old guy in all the trappings which the title brings along (cappa included, hence the post), then subject him to the judgment of a handful of children, and if they don't recognize their "padre" anymore underneath all that silk and ermine, let him retreat to the back of the room - cappa dramatically swooshing behind - and say no to whatever Pope and Church have to offer, while piece by piece taking off the robes.

I love St. Philip Neri and if there's one occasion in Church history where renouncing of the cardinalate (which he did more than once) makes sense, it is with this humorous saint.

Footage of Cardinal Leger

Check out this link to see 50 seconds of splendid color-footage of a procession with Paul Emile Cardinal Leger in cappa magna.

[Update: Here is a second movie, also in color]

Here are two screenshots:

"Nel Nome del Papa Re" (1977)

This is - of course - a movie with an anti-clerical (or at least anti-curial) bias, but the cappa you see in this scene is apparently either a real one or very well done. Don't be fooled by the cardinal's monocle. When he doesn't hold it, it looks like he forgot to remove the earplugs of his iPod

L'Affaire du Collier de la Reine

In this 1946 movie by French director Marcel L'Herbier you can see one of the more credible representations of an "on screen" cappa magna. Maurice Escande plays the Cardinal de Rohan, one of the major characters in the scandal that damaged the French Monarchy and especially the reputation of Marie Antoinette four years before the outbreak of the revolution. Marion Dorian plays Marie-Antoinette and Jean Hébey is Louis XVI.



This movie is more of a documentation and almost has the feel of a stage play about it. Still it is far better than Charles Shyer's "Affair of the Necklace", a 2001 pile of steaming dung, which - I admit - is a half-decent piece of eye-candy but still defiles not only the historical persons of Marie Antoinette and Louis Cardinal de Rohan but also the actors playing them, Hilary Swank and Johnathan Pierce, who both helplessly stumble through a script that is about as much fun as a toothache on your wedding day. I'd love to see this episode of French history done well in a monumental kind of way with one million actors and extras, a 200 million budget, a faithful reenactment of the court at Versailles and actors who at least approximately resemble their historical counterparts. I am sick of Marie Antoinette looking like a tramp, Louis XVI looking like a supermodel or an idiot and the Cardinal de Rohan looking like a bookkeeper in scarlet silk.