Film review: ‘BENEDETTA’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Whether he’s making sci fi such as Robocop and Starship Troopers, a psychological thriller like Elle, an erotic thriller like Basic Instinct or a soft porn/comedy like Showgirls, the ever-controversial Dutch director Paul Verhoeven seems to love exploring troubled, morally questionable characters and provocateurs. His latest film, the much-lauded and often confronting, Benedetta, is no different. Loosely based on real events, it dramatizes the life of the persecuted 17th century Italian nun, Benedetta Carlini.
The film tantalizes with the question of whether this is a story of Benedetta’s genuine faith or her bizarre and seemingly unstoppable ambition. When she claims to have supernatural encounters with Christ, Benedetta (Virginia Efira) is hailed by the church as a holy visionary and rewarded with a position of power at her abbey. Inevitably, this rankles those who already dislike her and suspect she’s a fraud. When her clandestine affair with a young apprentice nun, Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia) is discovered, it makes a very convenient weapon for Benedetta’s’ enemies to have her accused of heresy, blasphemy and even bestiality. It helps her enemies that in the febrile (and topical) environment of plague-ravaged Italy, all, especially the clergy are susceptible to the notion that the epidemic is a punishment inflicted by god on a sinful world that must be cleansed.
Verhoeven has frequently critiqued social institutions and political systems – Starship Troopers was essentially a satire of fascist governments and here he takes aim at the church. He depicts the senior nuns as callous and determined to divest the precocious tween Benedetta of any optimistic views when she first arrives at the abbey telling her that her garments should be uncomfortable because her worst enemy is her body and that intelligence can be dangerous. Later, through the attempts to oust and punish the adult Benedetta, Verhoeven depicts what appears to be seething bitterness behind the piety within this religious institution, the patriarchal power structure that rules these women’s lives and the brutal extent to which these men will go to maintain that order.
While he’s not in Michaels Bay’s league, Verhoeven has rarely been accused of subtlety and here he hammers each religious epiphany and political point regarding the church as if he’s driving in a rail spike. During one of Bendetta’s visions, Jesus saves her from snakes by leaping into the fray like Douglas Fairbanks and lopping the heads off the CGI serpents with a sword. The depiction of Christ in some of Benedetta’s other visions is even more extreme and will no doubt stir up controversy, possibly like Martin Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ.
Virginia Efira is remarkable as Benedetta. Resembling Jennifer Lawrence, she, at first seems a little too glamorous for a 17th century nun but she powerfully captures the character’s complex mix of compassion, ambition, zealous religious devotion and torment from violent visions that may be the result of mental illness. Daphne Patakia is also wonderful as her emotionally and physically scarred lover Bartolomea. Also, Charlotte Rampling again shows she is one of the all-time greats with her potent and nuanced performance as the cynical, strategic and fiscally-minded head of the Abbey.
This is a thematically potent and at times disturbing film with moments of visceral violence including torture. It’s also a striking visual experience as Verhoeven and cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie saturate the screen in wonderfully vivid colour reminiscent of renaissance art works.
Given the theme of a lesbian relationship between two sexually inquisitive young women, this film might strike some as an exercise in titillation for men. With plenty of full-frontal nudity it occasionally veers into soft porn but ultimately the film uses this relationship to explore the idea of sexual repression within the church and its psychological fallout.
Some may find this film a little too provocative even offensive but few could deny the artistry in its creation.
Nick’s rating: ***1/2.
Genre: Historical drama.
Classification: R18+.
Director(s): Paul Verhoeven.
Release date: 10th Feb 2022.
Running time: 131 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm right here on 88.3 Southern FM. Nick can also be heard on “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Film Show” podcast. http://subcultureentertainment.com/2014/02/the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-film-show