Benedetta (2021)
January 20, 2025 10:14 PM - Subscribe

17th century France! A grimy place of plague of brigands. But situated in the countryside, a charming convent where we meet Benedetta, a young and devout nun whose relationship to Christ is unusually personal, and whose relationship with a novitiate is definitely not something Mother Superior needs to know about. It's Benedetta!, a movie whose title does not end with an exclamation point, but ought to.

What in the world...

I'm forever reading some silly bullshit that Tarantino said about finishing his career with his tenth film because everybody knows directors lose it and blah blah blah, whatever man, Paul Verhoeven literally made this movie when he was 83, and it is easily as crazy as anything he made before it. My jaw dropped at the sheer audacity on display more than once.

That said: Paul Verhoeven was 83 when he made this movie, and his sensibilities are, perhaps, not those of a person who was not born in the 1930s. Specifically, a man. Is this film male gazey? I mean, yes, as one might expect from the director of Showgirls and Basic Instinct. On the other hand, sex and sexuality is what this movie is about. I'm not saying you couldn't tell this story without lots of full frontal nudity, but I am saying that this is explicitly a movie about overpowering lust, lust so intense that it might literally be an expression of God's love (!!!), and I guess you can do that with lingering glances and some under the table footsie, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot easier to evoke it by showing naked people all up on each other. Your Mileage May Vary, but be forewarned, there is a lot of sex and nudity in this film, and it might make you uncomfortable or feel exploitative to you, I dunno.

Streaming on AMC Plus and Kanopy, probably available to rent all the other place one generally rents movies.
posted by kittens for breakfast (8 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm not a Tarantino fan, and definitely not a Verhoeven fan, but I am a big fan of Virginie Efira, and a couple of years ago watched a dozen of her movies in one gulp (Not this one though).

However, recently I began exploring the work of Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. He started making movies in 1927 at the age of 19, and finished his last film in 2015 when he was 107. If you are looking for an excellent movie by an old dude who still got it, try f.ex. I'm going home, which he made at the age of 101.
posted by growabrain at 11:57 PM on January 20 [3 favorites]


I think Verhoeven has made some great films, and I've been thinking about him a lot lately, as America seems to be plunging into the RoboCop universe at present. I hadn't seen this one, so I sat down to watch it with little pregame knowledge. That's probably the way to do it, but -- wow, the content. This is not for everybody. (There's also some gore content, but that's mostly cartoonish and fantastical.)
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:49 AM on January 21 [2 favorites]


If Ridley Scott hasn’t hit one out of the park since The Counselor, he’s still doing a decent job of getting on base.
posted by Lemkin at 6:22 AM on January 21


This is not for everybody

However if you are into S tier nunsploitation? It might be for you.
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:48 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]


I guess because the title rhymes with Beretta and Vendetta I assumed this was a Nuns With Guns Hornt For Vengeance movie, not a Nuns Hornt For Each Other And Sword-Wielding Jesus movie, this changes everything
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:31 AM on January 21 [6 favorites]


Kinda wishing for a Crisis on Infinite Verhoevens that would produce a Benedetta that was Nuns with Guns Hornt for Each Other and working for RoboJesus ("Saved or damned, you're coming with me").
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:44 PM on January 21 [1 favorite]


PART MAN
PART GOD
ALL MESSIAH
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:44 PM on January 21 [1 favorite]


eh, it's specifically a (based on a true) story about sex between women. dunno how else it could be told. I liked it. if you can't get illicit sex and repression from the catholic church, what are we even doing?

as with all entertainment, liberties have been taken.

here's an historian's take.
posted by j_curiouser at 4:00 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]


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