Proof that even a great cast, a big budget and lots of lovely frocks can not rescue stilted, clunky dialogue and flat direction.

The three stories are told mostly through stilted, long-winded dialogue, or 'it may be imagined 'style intercessions by the author.

There are the usual grand visual gestures - why have a meeting of cardinals in the boring Sistine Chapel if you can use a breathtaking patch of bamboo at the pope's country residence? - and the usual stilted dialogue, spoken by a huge cast of Italian actors who seem to have learnt English just for this job.