Benedetta

Benedetta (2021) is set in a convent in Pescia in seventeenth century Italy. Benedetta Carlini is given to the convent as a child and as an adult begins saying she has seen Christ. Stigmata appear on her body and she becomes abbess. In the same period she begins a relationship with a woman who has taken refuge there. The character is real. Benedetta Carlini lived between 1591 and 1661 and the records of the church's investigation into her survive. The source is the study published by the historian Judith C. Brown in 1985. Paul Verhoeven directed. He described his approach as needing to be deeply infused with a sense of the sacred, arguing that he had built the film as a religious text rather than as provocation. The production was delayed twice. It was to have reached Cannes in 2019; Verhoeven had hip surgery and it moved to 2020. When Cannes 2020 was cancelled for the pandemic, the release slipped to 2021. Virginie Efira plays Benedetta. It was protested. Catholic organisations including the American TFP demonstrated at the New York Film Festival screening, objecting to a lesbian relationship being shown inside a convent. Singapore and Russia banned it on religious grounds. Against a 21.3 million dollar budget it took only 4.3 million. It runs 131 minutes. Good for: critiques of religious authority, Verhoeven, and historical drama. Less good for: the sex and the torture are explicit and heavy. The film's ambiguity about whether Benedetta actually believes reads as indecision to some viewers. The plague subplot is left undeveloped.