‘Benedetta’ Review: A Guilty-Pleasure Nunsploitation Movie From the Director of ‘Basic Instinct’

The A-list talent is usually in the front row at the big name fashion shows.But this time it was the catwalk queens who were the biggest names in the room.Sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid lead the runway at the Michael Kors presentation as part of NYFW on Wednesday night as the American fashion designerenlisted the modeling industry's top talent to model his Fall 2022 Ready-To-Wear collection.The siblings were not the only ones rocking the runway as they were joined by top names Emily Ratajkowski and Irina Shayk as they strutted her stuff.Scroll down for video Sister act: Sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid lead the runway at the Michael Kors presentation as part of NYFW on Wednesday night as the American fashion designer enlisted the modeling industry's top talent to model his Fall 2022 Ready-To-Wear collection Top models: Michael Kors enlisted the modeling industry's top talent to model his Fall 2022 Ready-To-Wear collection; Bella Hadid pictured Dynamic duo:The siblings were not the only ones rocking the runway as they were joined by top names Emily Ratajkowski (left) and Irina Shayk as they strutted her stuffBella Hadid commanded the runway in two awe-inspiring looks, including a black sequin turtleneck dress worthy of a Bond girl.The gorgeous garment had a cut-out on the hip and a dramatic slit up one leg. The look was completed with a pair of classic strappy heels.

Of the many films playing at Cannes which have gained in resonance since the coming of the pandemic, “Zero F*cks Given” from French duo Julie Lecoustre, and Emmanuel Marre does not represent the creepiest, most alarming kind of coincidence — that description would better fit “Benedetta” from Dutch master Paul Verhoeven, which features an actual plague, face coverings and quarantine measures.

his latest film Benedetta.Speaking after critics questioned some of the scenes, including one where an effigy of the Virgin Mary is used as a sex toy, Verhoeven said (per Variety): “I don’t really understand how you can really blaspheme about something that happened, even in 1625.“You cannot change history, you cannot change things that happened, and I based it on the things that happened. So I think the word blasphemy in this case is stupid.”In response to another question about a new “hysteria” regarding nudity, the director responded: “Don’t forget, in general, people, when they have sex, they take their clothes off,” he said.

At the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Paul Verhoeven’s competition title Benedetta this morning, director and cast fielded a series of questions about the film’s use of nudity and sex while Verhoeven bristled at the suggestion Benedetta is in any way blasphemous. “I do not understand really how you can be blasphemous about something that happened… You cannot basically change history after the fact. You can talk about that was wrong or not, but you cannot change history. I think the word blasphemy for me in this case is stupid,” he said.

K.J. Yossman “Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven slammed the new “puritanism” he perceives has taken over cinema during a charged Cannes press conference for his latest film “Benedetta,” saying critics “don’t want to look at the reality of life.”The Belgian auteur has received a generally positive response to his risqué new film, which stars Virginie Efira and Daphne Patakia as two nuns embarking on an illicit lesbian affair in their convent.

For just a moment, as a particularly sepulchral stretch of Anne Dudley‘s liturgical score plays over a solemn black screen emblazoned with the words “inspired by real events,” you might think Paul Verhoeven‘s gone and gotten serious on us, and that “Benedetta,” his hotly lusted-after Cannes title is going to be, whisper it, tasteful. About 73 seconds later, little Benedetta, the pious, doted-upon daughter of a wealthy lord who’s on her way to become a nun, performs her first “miracle” and gets a bird to shit magnificently into a guy’s eye — phew.

Maggie Gyllenhaal looks stunning while walking the red carpet at the premiere of Benedetta during the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on Friday (July 9) in Cannes, France.

Ever the bad boy even into his 80s, director Paul Verhoeven stirs the pot and turns the heat up to the boiling point in Benedetta, a medieval brew of religious fervor, illicit lesbian sex in a convent, Catholic church politics and — to incidentally add a contemporaneous touch — a plague sweeping the land. Shot three summers ago in Tuscany and delayed in its Cannes Film Festival premiere by a year due to the 2020 edition’s cancellation, the film, like all the director’s work, is wild, intelligent, pulsating, provocative and vibrantly alive. Cecil B. DeMille would be outraged, while Ken Russell would be wildly jealous.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorRacy sex in a convent? Explicit dreams about Jesus Christ? A coming-of-age lesbian love story? Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” featured all that and more, leaving its premiere audience at the Cannes Film Festival searching for words to describe the movie they’d just seen.But in the end, the French approved. The period drama screened on Friday night at the 74th annual Cannes, where it was showered with a robust five-minute standing ovation.The foreign-language movie — loosely adapted from the book “Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy” — stars Belgian actress Virginie Efira as Benedetta Carlini, a 1800s French nun who believes she is possessed by Jesus Christ.

Sharon Stone recently shocked everyone with her comments related to the filming of one of Basic Instinct's explicit scenes. The actress in her recently released memoir opened up about the infamous interrogation scene and suggested that she was tricked into it.

"Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven refuted Sharon Stone's claim that she was "tricked" into showing frontal nudity in the film. "My memory is radically different from Sharon’s memory," Verhoeven told Variety in an interview published Wednesday.

Basic Instinct‘s famous leg-crossing scene.In her recent memoir The Beauty Of Living Twice, Stone stated Verhoeven tricked her into shooting the scene without underwear – among various other anecdotes about sexism and intimidation in the industry – by suggesting that Stone’s underwear was reflecting the light poorly, and asking her to remove them with the caveat that no frontal nudity would appear in the final film.“My memory is radically different from Sharon’s memory,” the director told Variety in a new interview published on Wednesday (July 7). “That does not stand in the way and has nothing to do with the wonderful way that she portrayed Catherine Tramell.

Basic Instinct director Paul Verhoeven, once again, insisted that Sharon Stone absolutely knew that her vulva-flashing moment would appear in his 1992 erotic thriller.The 63-year-old Oscar nominee wrote in her memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, which dropped March 30, that she was told the audience wouldn't 'see anything' and she was tricked.'"I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on,"' Sharon wrote Paul told her on set.

tricked into removing her underwear for the infamous scene in 1992’s “Basic Instinct.” The now-63-year-old actress wrote in her recent memoir that she was under the impression that no frontal nudity of her would appear in the film’s final cut. Verhoeven, however, finds this inconceivable. “She knew exactly what we were doing,” the 82-year-old Dutch director told Variety in an interview Wednesday.

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (“RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Elle“) will finally debut his erotic lesbian nun drama “Benedetta” at the Cannes Film Festival this week, following a year of waiting around for the COVID-19 pandemic to subside. READ MORE: Watch 3 Clips From Paul Verhoeven’s Erotic Lesbian Nun Thriller ‘Benedetta’ Premiering At Cannes During the pandemic, the director seemingly had a lot of time to consider his next couple of movies.

He shocked the Netherlands in the ’70s and ’80s and scandalized Hollywood in the ’90s. Now Paul Verhoeven is bringing his lesbian nun saga to Cannes. What could go wrong?

Even if you’ve never seen Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct,” you’re likely familiar with the scene that shocked the world where the film’s star, Sharon Stone, seductively opens her legs while wearing a dress and allowing everyone to see that she wasn’t wearing underwear. It’s a scene that overshadowed the entire film and became a pop culture touchstone that was referenced for years to come.

“Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven has responded to Sharon Stone’s claims about that famous leg-crossing scene.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaPaul Verhoeven has made a career out of pushing cinematic boundaries, particularly when it comes to depicting sex or violence on screen.In films like “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls,” he battled the ratings boards, while blockbusters like “Total Recall” and “Robocop” popularized R-rated action. All that changed in the aughts, as Hollywood abandoned those projects, sanded down the edges of commercial movies, and replaced ice-pick wielding serial killers with caped superheroes that appeal to a-all-four quadrants.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentIFC Films will be out in force at the Cannes Film Festival with three highly-anticipated films set for the competition: Jacques Audiard’s black-and-white drama “Paris, 13th District,” Mia Hansen-Løve’s English-language melodrama “Bergman Island” and Paul Verhoeven’s subversive period drama “Benedetta.” This comeback Cannes edition will also mark Arianna Bocco’s first year on the ground as IFC president.

After gaining prominence with American studio films such as “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Basic Instinct,” “Starship Troopers,” and “Hollow Man,” it’s clear Dutch director Paul Verhoeven has gone in a different direction with his later works. He made a big transition with the WWII Dutch resistance film “Black Book” led by future “Game of Thrones” and “Valkryie” actress Carice van Houten.