| By Lauren Taglienti |
Benedetta, a 2021 Paul Verhoeven film, inspired by the book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy was so good that it made me incredibly excited to read the book. Because if the movie based on it is so good, the book must be just as good, if not better. At least that's how it usually goes with films based on or inspired by books.
Anyway, I heard Katya talk endlessly about Benedetta on The Bald and the Beautiful with Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, and I had to watch it. Katya could not say enough things about it, and considering that my jaw dropped several times throughout the movie, including at the end, I cannot say enough good things about it either. Before I get into some technicalities about the movie, I'd like to comment on the movie's impact on me.
I received the devastating news that Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court Friday morning, and I felt like I was mourning the loss of a loved one. I was angry crying, and I felt like I needed to punch something, yet something about it all felt surreal, like I was being thrown deeper into Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale. I watched Benedetta Friday night, accompanied by plenty of comfort food, and the movie inspired me and reignited my love for films. Despite having religious trauma and less rights than I did not even a week ago, witnessing the strong women in Benedetta also made me feel a little less hopeless and a little more empowered. It was also great to watch a film in French, a language I have been studying.
Virginie Efira played Benedetta impeccably, which I expected. I had seen her in Night Shift, which was such a great film that featured great acting from her. She does a wonderful job at portraying flawed, complex characters, which was exemplified in this film. Daphne Patakia also did a great job as Bartolomea. There were so many female characters in the film, and that was really refreshing, considering so many films are dominated by males.
Many of the scene transitions in the film were accompanied by a loud noise. I noticed this because at many of the scene changes, the puppy I was watching it with jumped up from her sleep because the noise woke her. The sounds never spooked me, though, which makes sense since the film isn't supposed to be a horror film. The loud noises were ominous nonetheless and foreboding of what would later happen in the film. I though the loud transitions would stop, but I ended up lowering the volume of the TV as to not continuously spook the lil puppy since they persisted.
The lesbian representation was wonderful, and I appreciated that Benedetta and Bartolomea, two nuns, were complex characters who were more than just their sexuality. They were capable of both helping and hurting others, and they both did both throughout the film. What was interesting about their relationship was that Bartolomea seemed to be disgusted by Benedetta at various points where she doubted the authenticity of Benedetta's stigmata, and yet she continued her relationship with Benedetta. Her love and passion for Benedetta conflicted with her sense of morality, though she was not very religious, as she thought Benedetta was being deceptive. However, it seems that Benedetta's own faith in Jesus possessing her to inflict the stigmata on herself being a valid form of stigmata was what convinced Bartolomea that perhaps Benedetta's stigmata was true, thus justifying in Bartolomea's mind a reason to maintain her relationship with Benedetta. This is just one possibility of why Bartolomea stayed with Benedetta that the film suggests. The writing was very engaging and strong, and I wanted to see more when the movie ended.
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