BENEDETTA // with engl. subs
de Regie-Legende Paul Verhoeven (Elle, Showgirls, Basic Instinct, Robocop)
gelang mit der erotischen Liebesgeschichte zweier Nonnen in Cannes 2021 der meist beachtete Aufreger des Festivals.
en After several decades, it’s amusing to watch the pattern of a Paul Verhoeven film entering the world: the notoriety can obscure his mastery. The director’s latest movie is erotically charged, yes, but it’s primarily a gripping thriller of political intrigue and a questioning of faith that lays bare the use and abuse of power in organized religion.
en After several decades, it’s amusing to watch the pattern of a Paul Verhoeven film entering the world: the notoriety can obscure his mastery. The director’s latest movie is erotically charged, yes, but it’s primarily a gripping thriller of political intrigue and a questioning of faith that lays bare the use and abuse of power in organized religion.
de Italien im 17. Jahrhundert: Hinter den Mauern des Klosters von Pescia versetzt
die Novizin Benedetta Carlini die Oberhäupter der katholischen Kirche in Aufregung, als die Wundmale Christi an ihrem Körper
auftreten. Trotz anfänglicher Zweifel an der Echtheit der Stigmata gilt Benedetta von nun an als Auserwählte Gottes, steigt
zur Äbtissin auf und genießt Privilegien in der Ordensgemeinschaft, die ihr ein geheimes Doppelleben erleichtern: Sie lässt
sich von der Nonnenschülerin Bartholomea in die Geheimnisse körperlicher Lust einführen. Doch die ehemalige Klostervorsteherin
Felicita kommt dem verbotenen Treiben auf die Spur …
en Set in a 17th-century convent, the story of the ambitious young Benedetta begins as this starry-eyed novice nun is bankrolled by her wealthy father and then rockets to prominence in her new home. Verhoeven administers a double shock: his protagonist wins favor by claiming to have stigmata, and she passes her free time in carnal enjoyment with her brusque lover, ignoring vows of chastity and propriety. Arriving in a post-Devils world, the filmmaker is not trying something so simple as blasphemy, and instead crafts a stone-andcloth immersion in the era and its strictures. His merciless film shows the often-mercenary mindsets of Benedetta, her mother superior, and church leaders. When plague strikes the countryside, the outbreak turns out to be just another way for its characters to scheme against each other in the face of death. Faith may be sacred, but human relations, Verhoeven suggests, bring it inescapably down to earth. (Nic Rapold)
en Set in a 17th-century convent, the story of the ambitious young Benedetta begins as this starry-eyed novice nun is bankrolled by her wealthy father and then rockets to prominence in her new home. Verhoeven administers a double shock: his protagonist wins favor by claiming to have stigmata, and she passes her free time in carnal enjoyment with her brusque lover, ignoring vows of chastity and propriety. Arriving in a post-Devils world, the filmmaker is not trying something so simple as blasphemy, and instead crafts a stone-andcloth immersion in the era and its strictures. His merciless film shows the often-mercenary mindsets of Benedetta, her mother superior, and church leaders. When plague strikes the countryside, the outbreak turns out to be just another way for its characters to scheme against each other in the face of death. Faith may be sacred, but human relations, Verhoeven suggests, bring it inescapably down to earth. (Nic Rapold)
