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Edition 2021
Films
Adapted from the book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, by American historian Judith C. Brown, Benedetta is a reconstruction of the story of 17th-century Italian abbess Benedetta Carlini, a nun who claimed to have had a vision of Christ, taking Jesus as a “groom” and entering a “metaphysical” trance of love. Paul Verhoeven films this “spiritual” love story (which somehow emulates the “mystical ecstasy” of St. Teresa d'Ávila) in a very carnal way, bluntly exploring the sexual and erotic element (but also with an “academic interest”, according to the filmmaker, in religious life during the Renaissance) of a real case of female homosexuality in a context of high monastic hierarchy described in the book in great detail (which required rigorous research, as at the time records were very scarce).
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Cast:
Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphne Patakia, Lambert Wilson, Olivier Rabourdin, Hervé Pierre -
Original Title:
Benedetta -
Country:
France, Nederland, Belgium -
Year:
2021 - 131’ Subtitles: PT
Director
Paul Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven was born on July 18th, 1938, in Amsterdam, and studied at the University of Leiden, where he graduated with a degree in Mathematics and Physics. He then joined the Royal Dutch Navy, where he began his cinematographic career with documentary films, a genre in which he also worked for television. In 1973, with his second feature, Turkish Delight (1973), he became very popular in his country, eventually moving to the US after gaining international recognition with later films. There, he became a director of great box office hits, with films such as Robocop (1987), Total Recall (1990) or Basic Instinct (1992). He got back in shape with Elle (2016), starring Isabelle Huppert, after losing his way for a while.
