Outdated Sacrilege

Benedetta (2021) - Verhoeven There were Catholics demonstrating outside Film at Lincoln Center during the screenings of Benedetta, calling it a sacrilege. They really should focus more on pedophile priests. Please Catholics, picket at the churches and the residence of pedophile priests and bishops and grow some thick skin. You are way too sensitive, because Verhoeven's new nunsploitation is not half as outrageous or sacrilegious as you claim it to be. However, Benedetta shows the church's hypocrisy as it existed in the Middle Ages and begs the question - who is to say that there is only one way to serve god?

Benedetta, a daughter of a wealthy merchant, enters the convent in the town of Pescia in Tuscany. The convent is like an expensive private school for rich girls back then, paying top dowry to be married to a church/Jesus. As a child, Benedetta has a very active imagination and thinks Jesus speaks to her.

Eighteen years has passed and Benedetta is fully grown woman, played by Virginie Efira, the Abbess Felicia (Charlotte Rampling) and her daughter Christina (Louise Chevillotte), a nun in the same convent, see Benedetta as a growing threat to their grip on power. After a commoner Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia) was spared and welcomed into the convent at the mercy of Benedetta and her rich parents, the two women develop a sexual relationship. This is the time when Benedetta shows the signs of stigmata and having vivid visions of hot, sword wielding Jesus protecting her. The local high priest declares Benedetta the new abbess after Benedetta shows the signs of stigmata and speaking of prophesies in a different voice, despite Felicia and Christina's doubts. Now Benedetta and Bartolomea can freely enjoy their sexual escapades with a hand carved dildo, made out of the Virgin Mary statuette. But what about the peephole you say? Oh, did I mention this is the time of the plague?

Benedetta is neither as scandalous nor provocative as one might think. Whether she faked her Stigmata or her resurrection, who is to judge her devotion to god? Escaping punishment for her sacrilege - burning at the stake, Benedetta goes back to her convent and stays there until her death, the prologue tells us.

As a film, Benedetta is not subliminal enough to be taken seriously, nor scintillating or flirty enough even for Verehoven standards. Sure there are plenty of nudity but the subject seems tame and dated for 21st century standards. Verhoeven is more often than not, only a few directors who can have the cake and eat it too. But he is no Ken Russell.

Pettiness of Being Old

45 Years (2015) - Haigh

Can memories of an old flame break up the 45 years of marriage? A brit director Andrew Haigh supposes with two of the acting greats - Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as the Mercers, on the eve of their 45 year anniversary celebration.

As far as any art when the old age is concerned, it almost always becomes pettily inward. There is no wondering about the grander meaning of life anymore. We hold on to individual memories because there is nothing else left when your life is almost at an end. And that is 45 Years comes across as, despite terrific characterizations by Courtenay and especially Rampling, who is as usual, fantastic.

The beginning of the week of their anniversary, Geoff (Courtenay), a retired upper-middle class man gets a letter written in German, informing they found the frozen body of his girlfriend in the Swiss Alps, who fell to her death in the crevice of a glacier some 50 years ago. The memories rush back and he is gripped by them for days on end. Kate (Rampling) is also gripped, but by jealousy and doubt that their collective years were built on unstable ground littered with secrets.

Shot on ugly digital, 45 Years looks the epitome of British realist drama. But it's criminally unflattering, considering Haigh is not going for Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf honesty or Mike Leigh revelations here. Haigh prefers series of long takes, obviously for the benefit of the esteemed actors. The ending dance sequence is quite devastating. But one can't shake off its pettiness (on Kate's part). Adult themed cinema should be much better than this.

The Damned

The Night Porter (1974) - Cavani *rewatch*

Max (Dirk Bogarde) is a night porter at a hotel and a former nazi SS officer. He runs into one of his former concentration camp captives, beautiful Lucia (Charlotte Rampling), as she is now a wife of an opera conductor visiting Germany. Lucia is understandably upset and avoids contacts with Max. He pursues her and they once more fall into a sadomasochistic relationship.

Unlike other former nazi officer friends who have regular meetings to free themselves from the past by interrogating each other, have mockup trials to acquit themselves and 'file away witnesses' of their crimes (group therapy turning into rogue, neo-nazi criminal organization), Max knows he is damned forever and doesn't try to hide his contempt. His attitude makes him and the witness (Lucia) targets. The pair becomes prisoners in Max's small apartment and have their master/slave, protector/little girl existence until their food runs out.

Young Rampling is radiant and seductive and Bogarde svelt. Marvel at the scene where Lucia's does Marlene Dietrich redux in the screencap above. Plus, there are two amazingly erotic scenes taking place in Max's apartment- their first physical encounter after the war in one long take and the strawberry jam scene, as they are almost starving to death. Acting in those scenes are mindboggling. Night Porter became the unwitting trailblazer for slew of Nazisploitation movies to come. But its attractions are a somber condemnation of war past and tragic love story which is as intense as it gets.

Bruegel on Film

The Mill and the Cross (2011) - Majewski


Jesus and the cross is right underneath the mill on top of the protruding rock in the middle, obscured by commotions among the crowd. Bruegel (Rutger Hauer) with his big black canvas and his patron in a top hat (Michael York) are in the foreground on lower right corner.

Polish director Lech Majewski's recreation of Bruegel's Procession to Calvary with the stories and characters surrounding it is first and foremost a visual feat & a technical marvel. Rutger Hauer gives us a grand tour of hidden meanings and messages in said painting, as the famed Flemish renaissance painter. Like many of the renaissance paintings, Procession is an update on the Passion Play and features ruthless Spanish mercenaries in red tunic in place of Roman soldiers. With every frame a work of art, you can't look away from its beauty.

I like Majewski's unobtrusive, less bombastic filmmaking when compared to Greenaway's Night Watching, in making a scholarly investigation in art. And I'm a sucker for tableaux in films (von Trier uses in his films quite a lot, I even like Tarsem's slick, cartoonish ones) and this one doesn't disappoint.