Paul Verhoeven Sticking To Dark Habits, Making Erotic Nun Movie
Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 9:47AM Paul Verhoeven is a walking, talking trigger warning; it’s not difficult to imagine him sitting behind an Inside Out-style control center smashing his fist on every red button in sight, cackling with perverse glee as he crawls under your skin like a psychologically disturbed porcupine with a bad case of rabies. Fresh off the especially spiky heels of last year’s Elle – his infamous “rape revenge comedy” that catapulted légende française Isabelle Huppert onto the stages of American awards ceremonies, better late than never – Variety reports that the Dutch provocateur plans to grind out a 17th century nunsploitation flick entitled Blessed Virgin as his next feature, replete with Sapphic undertones and hellish visions of religious erotica; a series of descriptors that should surprise approximately no one when it comes to all things Verhoeven.
After all, this is the same director who obliterated the military-industrial complex with giant man-eating space bugs, exposed the American entertainment industry with pole-licking showgirls, and, yes, drove a hatchet through the contemporary French bourgeoisie with a number of problematic sexual assaults.
Based on the book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, Blessed Virgin tells the sordid true tale of Sister Benedetta Carlini’s subversive exploits as the Christ-communicating, same-sex bedding abbess of an Italian nunnery. Going straight from one hyper-religious sister to another, Elle star Virginie Efira is set to reteam with Verhoeven to play the lead. Do Paul Verhoeven’s (intentionally) problematic visions delight or disgust you?
Reader Comments (11)
Elle was my biggest disappointment of 2016. Critics sold it to me as a taut, crackling thriller—even a black comedy. It has its moments but overall, it's two-plus hours of Verhoeven indulging his violent sexual fantasies. It is so plodding and gratuitous. Everything except for Huppert is just dull and punishing.
To appreciate Huppert's performance I needed to get past the movie, and I just couldn't. The same story in 90 minutes with a female director could've really sung. The comedic elements would pop more, the gaze would be a bit less exploitative.
And a female writer never would've allowed Huppert's character to be...a video game executive? What even was that.
It will be more controversial than Basic Instinct.................
Give him an honorary Oscar.
P.S. Thanks for everything, Jonathan Demme!
I love Verhoeven. He's problematic to prudes. Elle could have used tighter editing. And the female gaze is a lot worse when it comes to exploring uncompromising women.
Elle's subject matter didn't offend me—it bored me. Like all of Verhoeven's work, it seemed so proud of its own subversive posturing. At a certain point it's no longer about the story, it's about a self-satisfied director pressing buttons. His ego never got out of the way.
Huppert has done better work in more sophisticated psychosexual dramas. Including dramas where the plot is more twisted and shocking than Elle's—since you've levied that "prude" accusation.
Elle was a pure delight to watch. Masterful performance. Very difficult themes to tackle successfully. It will age very very well.
His visions delight me... and disgust me!
Hayden: Um...huh? Is it just that you didn't get what the full implications of "works in video games" are? Because, I got to tell you: This is basically the most symbolically loaded job the central character of this story could have, especially in 2016. The unique mix of long hours, industry sexism, the insane level of isolationism (the mainstream footprint is, frankly, TINY for an entertainment medium, especially considering the lack of good big movie adaptations) and potential great pay is a great mix for this story and I can't believe a smart female writer would seriously change that.
I wasn't overlooking the heavy-handed symbolic reason that character was a video game executive. It's like casting an unlucky-in-love thirtysomething as a relationship expert at a women's magazine. I get it because it's subtle as a ton of bricks. Thank you for explaining it to me, though.
I'm saying that the character we meet is thoroughly unbelievable in that occupation. Maybe that's a fault of Huppert's performance that she hardly emanates business acumen or passion for the medium. If you cut the workplace scenes, her occupation would make absolutely no sense. The specificity of her profession is actually kind of hilarious out of context—which is the way it felt to me throughout the movie.
It's a plot shortcut that provides instant thematic heft. I refuse to mistake that for profound and carefully mapped characterization. .
This was already a Jesus Franco movie
I hope Huppert will return as a Mother Superior in tt erotic nun flick 😀