No surprise that Anglo-Saxon critics are mostly lukewarm when it comes to Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta.” The male gaze is all over this Christ-like story of a sensuous nun (Virginie Efira) who suddenly hears the voice of God telling her that she’s the chosen one. Things get complicated when Bartholomea (Daphné Patakia), a runaway harlot sold by her incestuous father to the church (for a price), ends up striking Benedetta’s fancy. They hit it off, Verhoven-esque kink enters the equation and so does sexual penetration via a sculpture of the Virgin Mary (carved by Bartholomea to the shape of a penis). It’s just that kind of movie.
Set in the late 15th century, with, coincidentally, a plague ravaging the land of Pescia in Tuscany, Benedetta's impact on life in that community has parallels to that of Jesus of Nazareth. She begins to suffer disturbing religious and erotic visions of Christ only to switch her allegiance to Bartholomea. Is she possessed by the devil? Are her powers all an act? Verhoeven keeps it ambiguous and that’s what keeps you invested.
The middle section, around 90 minutes of it, contains the film’s best moments; tackling the forbidden lust that rages inside both Benedetta and Bartholomea. Meanwhile, the film’s antagonists, Sister Christina (Louise Chevillotte) and Charlotte Rampling’s hard-headed Abbess, suspect something is very rotten in Denmark.
In the film’s final section, an over-the-top campiness of hellfire and brimstone, the sky in Pescia starts turning blood-red, Abbess brings in Papal Nuncio, (a deviously sneery Lambert Wilson) who arrives to assess what in the living hell is going on in Pescia. What he witnesses leads to a trial filled with torture, arrests and death. A kangaroo court is born. But the people of the town rebel, they believe Benedetta is the chosen one.
Virginie Efira is absolutely stunning, inducing a sensual spell on the viewer. She, quite literally, gives body and soul to the role. “Benedetta” is also absolute Verhoeven. Erotic, violent, religiously sinful and absurdist. You have never seen a movie quite like this one. It’s a feminist take on Christ and Verhoeven makes sure to stuff his film with just about every obsession he’s had the last forty years; sadism, perversion, feminism, power, religion and, of course, total and utter irony [B+]