Trigger warning: thrilling, discomforting, erotic, emotional, terrific
- Benedetta review by Alphaville
Although it’s hard to believe, this colourful and rambunctious tale of a Lesbian nun who becomes an abbess is based on evidence from a real 17th century court case. In the hands of director Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct etc.) it’s a riot. There are moments when you may not be able to take your eyes away from the screen even if you want to.
It’s set in a convent where suffering is seen as the only way to salvation. And boy, do these Brides of Christ suffer. Benedetta has increasingly lurid and erotic dreams about Jesus while becoming involved in a Lesbian relationship with a fellow nun. Even the wooden Virgin Mary dildo they use is based on fact. And that’s just the start if it. Beginning as fun, the film dials up the excitement level, goes to some dark places and builds to provide an unexpectedly emotional punch.
Good to see one of cinema’s enfants terrible still on such good form and still causing trouble. The film has naturally been attacked in some quarters, but it’s good to see someone not afraid to make subversive art that refuses to tow the line. Rock on, Paul.
The DVD also has an enlightening interview with Verhoeven, including extracts from his previous films.
7 out of 7 members found this review helpful.
Very good, if not always easy to watch
- Benedetta review by SB
This is a difficult film to watch in some ways because it can seem that Verhoeven is just deploying his trademark urge to shock audiences. But to me it seems better to regard it as being in the tradition of ribald, often anti-clerical, comedy of the sort found in The Canterbury Tales and The Decameron. It is a valid way to explore that borderline between the senses of the body and those of the spirit.
Even at the end of the film we cannot be sure whether Benedetta is a fraud, a genuine visionary, or something in between with just a good deal of cunning. The period settings in Renaissance Italy (though the film is in French) are well done. Charlotte Rampling puts in one of her usual cool, restrained performances as a woman who is in power, loses that power but remains always significant. In the lead role Virginie Efira shows again what a superb, brave actress she is, holding nothing back.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Stunning movie.
- Benedetta review by themadpanner
This is one of the best movies of the decade, a sensational, shocking and hard hitting masterpiece. You will not remember this, and a excellent French DTS 5.1 sound mix. A pity it’s not Dolby Atmos as a full aural mix which would have made it even better. The music score, recorded in London fits the picture perfectly. A 10 star movie.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Overblown Unshocking Sex Drama About Nuns!
- Benedetta review by GI
Director Paul Verhoeven, not unknown for his excesses, has tried to categorise this as historical drama mostly because it is allegedly based on a true story (this being his chief defence for allegations of blasphemy) but it's really a quite shallow sexploitation film wrapped up in a sort of friendly version of The Devils (1971). This was bound to rattle some nerves in religious fundamentalists who view such nonsense far too seriously so putting aside all the pretensions what are we left with? In short a story about a 16th Century nun who fakes miracles (or does she??) including the stigmata and in doing so ousts the Abbess (Charlotte Rampling) and gets the top job allowing her to have a lusty relationship with a novice. As you'd expect with Verhoeven there's some audacious sex, some bloody violence and horrible plagued infested corpses but it's a hollow film, lacking any gravitas and at times you want to laugh out loud. Unconvincing and nowhere near his great films whether they be his Dutch or American based ones.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Promised to be so much more than it turned out to be. A very dull turgid film
- Benedetta review by TB
Paul Verhoeven making a film about lesbian nuns should be an instant winner. Not only is he fearless, but the film would be so much more than it's lurid premise, which was what I was most looking forward to. And after the phenomenal Elle, this was shaping up to be something incredible.
However, this film is really boring. There are lots of speeches about sin and miracle working. But it never is as scandalous as it likes to think it is. And when the much-hinted at and built upto sex scene arrives, it is fairly boring. Another example of this sort of film hype really not delivering.
Verhoeven may have been trying to make that point in a postmodern type of way, but it didn't work for me and fell flat. There are some plus points, the main one being that it's use of lighting, colour palette and cinematography is stunning: this really is a beautiful film to look at, hence the 2 stars. And Charlotte Rampling is suitably frosty & domineering as the head nun.
But these are small plus points in a film which in all honesty should have been so, so much more.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Expected from Paul Verhoeven
- Benedetta review by CSF
Verhoeven has always had an obsession with women and it is a good job that it is expressed in films only. I agree with the fact that by repressing sex drives people mad and that religion didn't understand it. It is also mad to repress sex for women only and that is well shown in the film. An excess of unecessary nudity is perhaps an aspect of Verhoeven's obsession. A bit too long. The film is not obscene, what is obscene is to tell women that they must be like the Virgin Mary: have children but stay a virgin and Verhoeven mocks this idea with a blaspheme. The statue of the Virgin Mary becomes an instrument for sex. I am surprised the Vatican didn't say anything. They did for an innocent J.L Godard's film! Whether I like the film or not, it is a 'necessary film' to counter balance some silly beliefs.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Vacuous nonsense
- Benedetta review by PD
Oh dear. This could have been a serious indictment of religion, or even a workable black comedy, but ends up, sadly, being vacuous nonsense. The plot, such as it is, hinges on a Virgin Mary wooden figurine repurposed into a sex toy, which tells you everything you need to know.
Inspired apparently by Judith Brown’s “Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy,” Verhoeven spins the (potentially intriguing) tale of Benedetta, a 17th-century nun in the plague-ravaged Tuscan city of Pescia, who seems to have a divine gift and suffers from disturbing visions. But unfortunately it all ends up in a 'frustrated lesbian-meets-madness' mess - in one vision, for example, she sees a crucified Jesus telling her to “Take off your clothes,” and if you don’t know whether to laugh or just look away, you’re not alone.
Virginie Efira as Benedetta is pretty one-dimensional throughout, with absolutely zero chemistry between her and Daphne Patakia (perhaps they were laughing too much to care), whilst Charlotte Rampling as mother superior gets full marks for attempting to give the film more gravitas than it deserves (and has some good lines: “No miracle occurs in bed, believe me,” she says). A local church dignitary sees in the apparently blessed nun an opportunity to rise up the chain of command and make Pescia a magnet for pilgrims like Assisi, but this and other any potentially interesting leads, such as a brave nun refusing to go along with all the mind games, are quickly dissipated, and we're left with the (rather disturbing) feeling that Verhoeven isn't in slightest bit interested in history, or the truth of this person. Meanwhile, the male voyeuristic eye is all-too dominant and not a little exploitative - the film wants to have a go at religious hypocrisy (fair enough) but for me all it reveals is the filmmaker’s: how for example does it help his mission exposing a corrupt system to show a horrific torture scene with a stripped-naked nun? There are perhaps some important themes raised amongst it all — “Who decides what is God’s will?” is one lingering question —but to find it you have to slice away all the tasteless excesses that are presumably intended to push buttons, like a 5-year-old testing her parents’ patience. And it takes a particular kind of chutzpah in 2021 for a man (and only a man could do this) to make a film purporting to champion female liberation in a rigid male hierarchy via exclusive female nudity and same-sex dry humping. The only blessing here, I'm afraid, is when it’s over. Such a pity.
0 out of 2 members found this review helpful.