In the 17th century in the city of Pescia, a girl from a well-to-do merchant family was offered by her parents to the Convent of the Theatines to be nun. For the next 18 years, Sister Benedetta would frequently have vivid visions of Jesus Christ talking to her or fighting for her. One day, a peasant girl named Bartolomea was put under her guidance. When Benedetta later manifested stigmata, she promoted in position, as her relationship with her postulant became more scandalous. Meanwhile, the Black Plague ravaged the rest of Italy.
During his heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven was notorious for the salaciousness of films such as "Basic Instinct" (1992) and "Showgirls" (1995). This year, at a ripe old age of 83, Verhoeven is back with another sexually-charged feature film which will be added to this infamous list. This new film courts even more controversy because it dared to tackle a story of sapphic sexuality happening within the consecrated confines of a Catholic convent, and this was supposed to be based on a real-life person.
When it premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or, this film raised a major ruckus because of several provocative scenes which can easily be labelled as sacrilegious or blasphemous. Of course, the sexuality of nuns alone was already taboo topic in itself. Showing two nude nuns engaging in carnal pleasures with each other took this to a whole new level. Showing Bartolomea use a little statue of the Virgin Mary to bring Benedetta to ecstasy simply blasted everything through the roof.
That short controversial scene of Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene on the lips that doomed Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) was nothing next to what Jesus was doing here in Benedetta's visions. He was a swashbuckling swordsman on horseback chopping off the head of Benedetta's rapist. He was hanging on the cross, and asked Benedetta to remove his loincloth, and then some. These disturbing scenes were very difficult to sit through for Christians, but I suspect may actually be quite humorous for atheists.
This was an elegantly-shot film by cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie, with an evocative musical score by Anne Dudley. It felt like Pasolini's "The Decameron" (1971) and Annaud's "The Name of the Rose" (1986). As he criticized organized religion, Verhoeven kept us guessing to the end about the authenticity of Benedetta's divinity. The lead actresses Virginie Efira and Daphne Patakia were beautiful and fearless, as veteran actors Charlotte Rampling (as the old Abbess Felicita) and (Lambert Wilson) as the Nuncio gave impactful support.
No comments:
Post a Comment