IN A TENSE moment midway through Edward Berger’s recent movie “Conclave,” a pulpy thriller about the process of selecting a new pope, Isabella Rossellini, playing a nun named Sister Agnes, enters a room full of cardinals from around the world. After asking permission to speak, Sister Agnes discreetly delivers a piece of information that will upend the papal election and expose some of the most powerful figures in the Roman Catholic Church to public, career-ending humiliation. For the rest of the film, Sister Agnes never says another word. For much of film history, women spoke less than men simply because their characters were seldom the story’s focus. The “strong, silent type” of westerns and detective stories was made strong by his silence, while female characters were typically weakened by theirs.

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Persons: Edward Berger’s, ”, Isabella Rossellini, Agnes, Sister Agnes, Jeanne Falconetti, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s, Joan of Arc, Joan, it’s, Barbara Stanwyck’s Sugarpuss, Bette Davis’s Margo Channing, Eve ”, — Organizations: Roman Catholic Church