Christmas is about to come and Paul Verhoeven has left us a gift during this holy season: a movie with gay nuns, full-frontal nudity, tons of sex, Catholic hypocrisy, and brutal self-flagellation. Happy Birthday, Jesus!
Benedetta doesn’t know if this is a serious indictment of religion, a horror film, a thriller, or an adult film. In the end, it doesn’t matter. It expects to shock us with things like a wooden statue of a Virgin Mary that has been repurposed into a sex toy, but, by and large, it just bores.
Judith C. Inspired by Brown’s Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, Verhoeven spins the story of Benedetta, a 17th-century nun in the plague-stricken Tuscan town of Pescia who has a divine gift. And she too is suffering. From disturbing religious and erotic vision.
In one vision, she sees Jesus crucified, a crown of thorns surrounding his temple, bleeding profusely from being stabbed. Take off your clothes, he asks her. If you don’t know whether to laugh or not, you are not alone. It’s like a showgirl in a convent.
Benedetta is portrayed by Belgian actor Virginie Efira, who finds herself more naked than she would have been if she were starring in porn. (Sample dialogue: I saw your boobs. I saw them. Yes, we all saw it, sister.)
Her character begins an illicit relationship with a fellow nun (played ruthlessly by Daphne Patakia) and then develops symptoms of stigma while she sleeps. Is she actually being gifted by God or is she just making it up with some careful self-cutting?
The head of the convent, played by Charlotte Rampling, is dubious, which gives this film more gravitas than it’s worth. No miracles happen in bed, trust me, she says in one of the best lines. But the local church chief sees this apparently blessed nun as an opportunity to elevate the chain of command and make Pescia a magnet for pilgrims like Assisi.
A brave nun refused to go along with the lie. People have to know. She says what is happening here is blasphemy. Convent chiefs answer: Everyone already knows what matters.
But as the freak around his mountain, Benedetta needs to perform bigger and bigger stunts to prove that he has been chosen. She claims that Jesus told her that as long as she lives, everyone else will live. How convenient
Verhoeven, who directed and co-coordinated the script with David Birke, is not interested in the truth about the nun. When Benedetta is asked privately by her boyfriend if she faked the stigma, she replies: I don’t know. I don’t know how God makes things. Truth is not important here, only the manifestation of truth. (Never ask about the naked truth here.)
It’s all so over the top that it crosses the limits of comedy. Verhoeven has never been too subtle with his goals, from American hegemony with Starship Troopers and authoritarian states with RoboCop. Here, she is as sharp as a dull bread knife.
The showrunner Benedetta seeks to strike a chord with religious hypocrisy, but this is exactly what the filmmaker reveals: how it aids his mission by showing a horrific torture scene with a naked-naked nun to uncover a corrupt system. Is?
Maybe here’s an interesting movie Somewhere Who Decides God’s Will? A long question, but to find it you have to overcome all those pesky and hyper-violent excesses that are clearly meant to be buttoned up, like a 5-year-old testing her parents’ patience. yawn
Plus, 2021 requires a special kind of chutzpah for an elderly man who makes a film to champion female liberation by showing exclusive female nudity and same-sex dry humping in a rigid male hierarchy. The only blessing here is when it is over.
IFC Films’ release Benedetta has been rated an R for nudity, sex scenes, suicide, and language. Running time: 126 mins. None out of four stars.
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MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian under the age of 17.
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Online: https://www.benedettamovie.com/
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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