Cannes Diary #4: Cannes gets undressed with two lesbian nuns and a naked maid.
Sunday, July 11, 2021 at 1:32PM by Elisa Guidici
by Elisa Guidici
Blame the pandemic, blame the sensuous summer in Riviera, this Festival is rated R for sure. A lot of nakedness, numerous explicit sex scenes (with a preference for cunnilingus) and in general the inability to spend a day at screenings without a full frontal or two. Sometimes journalists try to sell Cannes coverage insisting on the hotness of various movies. Well, no one needs to exaggerate this year: Benedetta gave us all the scandalous content we wanted...
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
COMPETITION FILM
This historical queer drama about the forbidden love between two nuns was my most anticipated film and what an experience it was...
I am not sure I have the words to describe you the level of rage with which Verhoeven destroys boundaries. Bigotry is his main target: religion was always one of his chief cinematic obsessions and this ambiguous story about a young Italian nun who seems to have visions and performs miracles while having a carnal relationship with another girl appears to have been tailored for him. And yet it is a true story! The movie is based upon the written reports of the trial Benedetta and Bartolomea had to face for heresy and blasphemy, in a place and time where love between women was not only forbidden but simply unconceivable for clergymen.
Sounds great, right? I love the message for sure, but the form? The way Verhoeven conveys how women use religion to reclaim power over their lives and bodies is not subtle at all. AT ALL. The Dutch provocateur has the energy of a young director on his first movie, eager to destroy everything on his path -- even his own movie if needs be. The level of ridicule he embraces, the joyous blasphemy, is something. Efira and an amazing Charlotte Rampling fight each other on religious grounds with an astonishing series of brilliant one liners (like several Verhoeven pictures, it's a comedy in a way, isn't it?).
Honestly, I would have appreciate a more elegant movie like Elle, but in a way. Verhoeven has made the right choice. The visions Benedetta has of Jesus (wait for them) are ridiculous and yet, how could a young woman unaware of the world imagine Jesus if not in this fanfiction, romanticized way? If you don't have a high tolerance for violence, nudity and sex or are extremely sensitivie about religion, stay as far from Benedetta as possible. I can't say I loved it, but I see what it's doing. Beyond cult, beyond cult... it's simply beyond.
Mothering Sunday (Eva Husson)
CANNES PREMIERE
Smart choice Eva Husson made here: this movie will be sell internationally in a blink of an eye. People loved Downton Abbey and The Crown: Mothering Sunday puts Josh O'Connor with a lot of Crown faces for this drama so British I was craving a cuppa for the whole movie. This story of an orphan maid in a major English house right after World War II reminded me a lot of other movies: Atonement above all, but The Wife too. It is not that original, but it is just right if "English people repressing their feelings until a tragic end because it is so unBritish to break social conventions" is on your moodboard (it is on mine for sure). It deserves your eyes if only for Odessa Young's stunning performance: she is magnetic ...and very, very naked, too. I spent a good couple of minutes wondering how many days she spent completely naked on set. If you think I'm a too obsessed about this detail, believe me, I have grounds to be.
The Divide / La Fracture (Catherine Corsini)
COMPETITION FILM
How good are French directors at movies like La Fracture? The ensemble cast is lead by a terrific Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Best Actress possibility?) who tries to survive a night in a crowded and understuffed French emergency room. Think Cantet's The Class but replace the world of public schools with the national health care system. The surprise here is not how Corsini's sensibility makes this both politially potent and humane, but in how funny it is. Tedeschi has specialized in lighthearted, silly, and a bit mad female characters but seeing her as a bourgeois lesbian artist having confrontations with a dustman turned protester within the yellow gilet movement is really hilarious. The movie doesn't lack for drama, either. Several people I've talked to agree that it's a strong contender for prizes at the end of the festival.
Previously
Diary Entry #1 Annette
Diary Entry #2 Everything Went Fine, Onada, Yasha-ga-ike
Diary Entry #3 Worst Person in the World, Velvet Underground, Lingui, etc
Reader Comments (11)
All reviews of BENEDETTA, positive and otherwise, have just made me more excited to watch this thing. Yours is no exception, though I must compliment you, again, for this great coverage. Thank you so much for sharing your writing with us, opening a window to the festivities at Cannes.
MOTHERING SUNDAY seems like an actors' showcase, that's for sure. Though, don't you mean World War I instead of World War II? Also, out of curiosity, how was Glenda Jackson?
I've liked Tedeschi in the past - at a certain point, I helped storyboard a film that was trying to cast her - but this description does make me anticipate a career-best work. LA FRACTURE feels like the kind of film that's bound to win something at festival-end awards. Excited to see if your tentative Best Actress prediction comes true.
Can't wait for BENEDETTA to arrive stateside and frighten the horses. I've been a fan since THE FOURTH MAN way back in the mid 80s. His films seem funnier and bolder as time goes by, not an easy accomplishment.
Definitely excited for Bendetta. I can’t say I’m one of those people who loves Verohoven myself, but it is a fascinating body of work and I haven’t see ANY of his Dutch movies aside from Turkish delight. He’s a director whose work I often dislike but whatever he directs I’m always extremely interested for what it might be.
Benedetta sounds like a future cult classic for sure.
I wasn't aware that Odessa Young was making her next big step in a Cannes film. She's a great young actress who wowed many of us a few years ago in the films THE DAUGHTER and LOOKING FOR GRACE, and it was great watching her go toe to toe with Elisabeth Moss in SHIRLEY. I hope MOTHERING SUNDAY gets some type of release here.
Good stuff. Silver lining to the pandemic is no on the ground Cannes coverage from Caudio. If he excelled as much as he has with his Cannes at Home pieces then his inevitable leaving TFE for bigger and better things would be expedited. And i'm not sure the readership is emotionally ready for that yet.
Kael, Ebert, Alves.
Cláudio -- i have felt the same way skimming the reviews (though I read this one in full). i absolutely cannot wait to see it. But then I've loved Verhoeven for a long time.
Travis -- i also really like her so looking forward to this
Elisa -- thanks. this was a joy to read. For whatever reason I had absolutely no expectations about LA FRACTURE and now i'm so excited for it.
Would I be hearing the drums clamoring for "Oscar Nomination for Best Achievement in Directing" for Paul Verhoeven? Is that what I hear?
@Lalupe If Claudio movies on, I'll have to go in for therapy, maybe even psychiatric care. Paxil, Zoloft, Lexipro? Will any of them be enough to keep me out of a bottomless pit of despair? I don't know and I don't want to find out. I worry about this daily. My sleep is filled with nightmares. What will I do? What. Will. I. Do?
These dispatches are great, Elisa! And a nice counterpoint to Claudio's (also great) Cannes at home series.
Oh, Verhoeven, still an enfant terrible after all these years. (But a less annoying one than Lars von Trier.) I'll bite, cause I like most of his stuff that I've seen.
It would be fun to see Verhoeven take home a major prize from Cannes, but with the female-heavy jury, a film that can be seen by some as exploitative might be a non-starter.
My early prediction is that BERGMAN ISLAND will be a major player. It's been getting good reviews, and the way it supposedly balances respect for the work of problematic male auteurs with a contemporary interest in female film authorship seems like a winning combination. Hopefully Elisa will get a chance to see it and report on her reaction. :)