Tag: Benedetta
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‘Zero F*cks Given’: Adèle Exarchopoulos Tries To Conceal The Despair of Life In This Shimmering Drama [Cannes Review]
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…
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Cannes Film Festival 2021 Critic’s Notebook 2: Benedetta, Hit the Road
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s “lesbian nun movie” Benedetta may have taken two extra years to land (Verhoeven’s hip surgery in 2019 prevented him from completing post-production in time for that year’s Cannes), but its prologue wastes no time informing the audience of its mischievous timbre (for the handful heading into it expecting anything close to…
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‘Blasphemous? Of course not.’ Director of lesbian nuns film hits back at critics
‘I did not invent these scenes,’ says Paul Verhoeven defending the graphic violence and sex in his film, based on a true storyIt might be based on a scholarly study of medieval nuns in Tuscany, but Benedetta, the new film from controversial director Paul Verhoeven, is full of lust, gore and brutality, and it has…
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How ‘The Crown’s’ Josh O’Connor and Director Eva Husson Navigated Nude Scenes in ‘Mothering Sunday’
Having been forced to cancel last year’s Cannes due to the pandemic, 2021 is proving to be a happy nude year for the festival with this edition’s most talked-about film, “Benedetta,” featuring a pair of romping nuns.Even the outwardly gentle period drama “Mothering Sunday” is unabashed about displaying the human body in all its glory,…
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‘Benedetta’ Director Paul Verhoeven Blasts Critics of Film’s Racy Sex Scenes: ‘We Don’t Want to Look at the Reality of Life’
“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…
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‘Benedetta’ Review: Paul Verhoeven’s Erotic Lesbian Nun Drama Won’t Reward Your Faith
You probably won’t be shocked to hear that Paul Verhoeven’s erotic drama about the relationship between two horny nuns in a 17th century Italian convent — a sacrilegious affair that became one of modern Western civilization’s earliest documented instances of lesbianism after a parish scrivener wrote about it in his diary with curiously exacting detail…
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Cannes Answers Lockdown Year With Jackpot of Titles
This year’s Cannes promises to be an edition unlike any other. More movies, fewer guests, plus a slew of logistical hurdles all add up to an epic case of Fomo — fear of missing out — for those too cautious to attend.For those who do make the trek, however, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux and…
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IFC Films’ Arianna Bocco Discusses the Company’s Big Presence at Cannes 2021
IFC 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…
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What a Delayed Cannes Film Festival Means for World Cinema (Column)
When it comes to film festivals, everyone follows Cannes’ lead, which is why it’s curious that the influential French event, originally scheduled to unspool from May 12-23 this year, waited more than a full week after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic — and two weeks after the French government banned…