Benedetta
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
- history
- drama
- romance
The story
A 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it is Benedetta's shocking religious visions that threaten to shake the Church to its core.
What it’s like
Rich, saturated candlelit interiors give way to bright, sun-warmed Tuscan courtyards, with the convent's stone corridors and gilded altars framed in deliberately theatrical compositions that feel both devout and faintly comic. Verhoeven's camera is mobile and often sly, cutting sharply between pious stillness and sudden bawdy physicality, while the score swells with choral and strings and then drops away into near silence. The vibe is irreverent and sensual, a mix of baroque ornament and satirical sting, best suited to a late evening with a glass of wine or a curious rewatch with friends who enjoy provocation. The pacing is brisk and uneven, moving between scheming, faith and desire, and its people are driven by ambition and need more than by any simple redemption. Intensity is high: explicit sexual content between women, brief but graphic violence, a torture sequence, and some scenes of self-harm and a suicide that land with unsettling bluntness. Made for viewers who like their period drama bold, blasphemous and unafraid of the body.
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