Benedetta
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Running time: 2hrs07 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY
Virginie Efira in Benedetta
Ah, sex. Good old sex. Good subject for a film, isn’t it? Everyone has an opinion about sex. Everyone has some kind of experience relevant to a discussion of sex, even if your experience is that you haven’t had it. Which brings me to nuns, specifically 17th century Italian nuns, the subject of Paul Verhoeven’s latest (based on the book Immodest Acts by Professor Judith C. Brown). Although the entire cast (including Charlotte Rampling, Daphne Patakia and Lambert Wilson) is excellent, this splendid film belongs to Virginie Efira as the titular character, Benedetta Carlini, a nun who really did exist and who really was harassed by the church, due to her own special brand of potential heresy, which combined both intense religious visions, and sex with a fellow nun.
Director of photography Jeanne Lapoirie’s camera sticks close to Benedetta, a strategy which allows Efira’s performance to remain sufficiently complex and ambiguous, despite occurring within the framework of a film whose events are anything but subtle. Yes, she and her favourite novice make use of an unconventional dildo; yes, she has psychosexual visions starring Jesus Christ; and yes, Lapoirie’s viewfinder frames acres of panoramic nudity. But despite all the ecstatic groaning and bellowing, Efira succeeds in sculpting a three-dimensional woman at the heart of it all.
In another time and place in history you could see Benedetta as an artist — she has a creative streak a mile wide and a liberal erotic imagination by which she is initially terrified, having seemingly fairly successfully repressed that side of herself until about the age of 30. Her tragedy is that she has a genuine talent in this department — her erotic imagination is fertile and flamboyant, and like almost any unused talent it seems a shame to see it neglected, curdling into anxiety and psychodrama. It’s therefore highly pleasurable to watch her gradually catch fire, improvising the only narrative that makes sense under the circumstances. Fasten your wimples, it’s going to be a bumpy night.
BENEDETTA (2021) Written by Paul Verhoeven, David Birke | Shot by Jeanne Lapoirie | Edited by Job ter Burg
