#paul verhoeven

the awesome (and sometimes unfortunate) that is:

ROBOCOP

Many of the best qualities of early and late Verhoeven combine in Benedetta, a tale of sex, blood, and sacrilege in 17th-century Italy. Based on the American historian Judith C. Brown’s 1986 non-fiction book Immoral Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (quite the title), its story focuses on the life of Benedetta Carlini, a nun in Precia who entered a sexual relationship with another woman in her convent. Paul Verhoeven originally adapted the book with his longtime collaborator Gerard Soeteman (Black Book,Turkish Delight), but the screenwriter stepped down when it became too “sexualized.” In the opening act there are not one, but two fart jokes. We are also, in many instances, offered evidence of the director’s well-founded appreciation for mommy’s milkies.

Originally titled Blessed Virgin and pegged for release way back in 2019, it marks an ever-welcome return for the great director, his first outing since 2016 when Elletook Isabelle Huppert all the way to the Oscars.Elle co-star Virginie Efira reteams with the director as the precariously self-assured Sister Benedetta. Verhoeven introduces the character as a child who, on the way to take “the veil,” saves her well-to-do family from being robbed by praying to the Virgin Mary. The mother of Jesus seems to respond by having a bird shit in one of the assailant’s eyes. (Much of the film’s drama is drawn from that fine line between divinity and pure chance.) This formative experience speaks to Benedetta’s belief that she is a chosen vessel for the Lord’s work. (It would be a stretch to say this is Verhoeven’s answer to Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, but there are some knowing similarities—as there are with Ordet.)

Continue reading our Cannes review of Benedetta.

Benedetta (2021)

Director - Paul Verhoeven, Cinematography - Jeanne Lapoirie

“God speaks in many languages, if your heart is brave enough to open it up.”