Inspired by Judith C. Brown’s biography Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, Benedetta shows nuns as we've never seen before. Benedetta showgirlsmovie JudithCBrown feministmoviereview
Over the course of his career, Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven has transitioned from sneered-at trash master to auteur, with “guilty pleasure” films like RoboCop, Total Recall, Showgirls, and even Starship Troopers garnering him reconsideration by cinephiles as a visionary of subversion. In 2008, he published a theological text, Jesus of Nazareth. So, it seems inevitable that he would eventually make a movie about horny nuns.
Inspired by Judith C. Brown’s biography Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, Benedetta is exactly what you’d expect. Sister Benedetta Carlini has baroque visions of Jesus, bleeds copiously from stigmata wounds, and succumbs to the wiles of a gorgeous neophyte named Bartolomea who fingers Benedetta’s bum during services. As Benedetta gains power at the convent, the sisters begin to suspect she’s full of BS, especially the pragmatic abbess .
Tags: Benedetta , Paul Verhoeven , showgirls , Virginie Efira , Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy , judith c. brown.