Benedetta is a 2021 biographical psychological drama film directed and co-written by Paul Verhoeven. The film centres around a novice nun in the 17th century who joins an Italian convent and has a lesbian nun affair with another nun. Benedetta is a great film, a throwback to nunxploitaton movies of old it is a powerful, engaging, and surreal drama unlike anything else.
The Direction in a film is great. The actors all work well together and really sell the insanity infolding on screen. The mood of the film is also great. There is a tenderness to the film with the weird love story at the centre. However, a foreboding sense of doom is present throughout. The film is also quite surreal with weird unique creative imagery shown throughout.
The acting in the film is also good Virginie Efira does a good job as Benedetta Carlini. She plays a woman who honestly believes in these visons of Jesus but is tormented by people saying otherwise and a lesbian love affair making an insane downward spiral. Charlotte Ramping does and good job Abbess Felicitia. She plays an innocent young woman who seems to be genially in love with Benedetta and its there dynamic that makes the story.
The writing is good. The plot is interesting with all the members of the nunnery plotting against one another. The way the characters try and elevate the situation for there own personal means is interesting and adds to the tenson. The love story and the centre of the film is good and gives the film a good emotional core. The way Benedetta gets caught up in being some sort of religious figure through images of Jesus is also interesting and adds more to the story.
The cinematography is great. The film is shot beautifully throughout. There are some great uses of lighting within the film to give off the otherworldly nature of certain aspects of the film. The beautifully looking shots combined with these arthouse ones makes for a great looking film. The special effects are good. The CGI during certain scenes adds to the surreal imagery and fits the film well.
Overall Benedetta is a great film a film that doesn’t get made very often but is impossible to miss.