Benedetta (2021)

My intro to late Verhoeven, and within twenty minutes Jesus had lopped a man’s arm off like Obi-Wan. I was in.

Watched this right after a RoboCop rewatch and it’s the same trick: hand the reactionaries all the flesh and blasphemy they showed up for, then reveal it was a scalpel about patriarchal power the whole time. Nunsploitation as Trojan horse. A woman seizes authorship of her own body from the men who assumed they owned it, and Verhoeven never once tells you whether she’s a genuine mystic or the best con artist in Tuscany. That’s the point. It doesn’t matter if the visions are real, only who gets to decide what her body means.

Also it’s completely unhinged and I loved every second. Jesus cuts off an arm like Obi Wan in the Cantina, a wooden Virgin Mary carved into a dildo, the Merovingian from the Matrix Reloaded as a corrupt nuncio, gorgeous plague body horror, and boobs beyond counting. Veers hard into camp and stays somehow sympathetic and strong the entire way. She survives, too, which for a queer woman in a period film is its own small miracle. Verhoeven is 87 and remains the horniest Herbert working in film today. Long may he blaspheme.

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