Totally not so controversial after all. Just a very solid movie. The magnificent Virginie Efira deserves more praise! :flag_be:

That Virgin Mary statuette was just like Jamie Lee Curtis’ trophies in “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”: you’ll know its destiny as soon as you lay your eyes on it.

This is such a hard movie to talk about, as it’s meant for such a small and mysterious audience. Sometimes it’s an arthouse masterpiece, sometimes it’s a hopelessly trashy movie, sometimes it’s even a valid entertainment piece. Describing it as “that movie with the nuns squeezing each other's tits” doesn’t do it justice. You should try.

I only wish they fixed how sometimes characters suddenly change their attitude and approach. A couple of scenes in between would have helped a little.

8.5/10
Sensational
Well this was an interesting
one to say the least and
I actually really really enjoyed
it, yes the absolutely beautiful
Nuns were just an absolute
treat but the hole is she really challenging you know how
really kept me engaged the
hole way through.
I found everything very interesting the way it was all playing out and therefore I was very entertained.
What I did enjoy to make me
love this movie even more
is at times especially towards
the end it went very
Games Of Thrones.

This nun finds a way to ecstasy in a much more mundane way.

Look beyond the steamy scenes. They make for great marketing but this is a great movie with an honest, if tongue-in-cheek, look at faith. It's been ages since a movie made me feel so much, so many. The power-play, the dialogues, the B-series look that prevents it from veering too much to pretentiousness, and a heartfelt take at what the price of subverting the rules is. Epic, absurd, unfathomable.

Let me summarise this movie with a family guy quote ….

Jesus: Uh hot ladies. Horny ones. Who, uh, sex on you.
Quagmire: What?
Jesus: Yeah, you know, they come back to your house and sit on your butt.

A truly hilarious film that tackles the hypocrisy of the Church, politics, and medieval history in an interesting way. Cheers to Jesus and the power of lesbians.

The power of lesbians really saved that town huh.

Stupid but fantastic.Nothing to be controversial

I loved Virginie Efira more than the movie. She is so insanely beautiful.

Paul Verhoeven out of control, dedicated to the sexualization of religious devotion, but also to the exposure of ecclesiastical corruption. There is no heaven in this story, only a hell that is represented in the daydreams of a Jesus who saves by cutting off heads. "Suffering is the only way to know Christ." Burns the stake of damnation and oozes the pus of the black plague. "Your worst enemy is your body".

A throwback to 90s trashy erotic films. With some social commentary added in.

Good:
-This film is a pleasure for the eye. Locations, set design, costumes and cinematography are top notch. It's an immersive and fascinating canvas of that historical period. Although not so historically accurate, for example the town where they shot the film is not Pescia in Tuscany (where Benedetta Carlini really lived) but Bevagna in Umbria.
-Acting is very good, expecially the protagonist, Virginie (not so virgin) Efira
-Hot naked nuns get laid (this is the other reason why the film is a pleasure for the eye lol)

Bad:
-Too grotesque. This film sometimes seems an historical drama about serious themes as religion, sexuality, repression etc.. other times seems a porn parody written by Brazzers.
-The story is inconsistent and confusing. I have the impression it was just an excuse for the director to make controversial, sexually provocative scenes to shock the audience and covertly mock christianity.

DVD Quote (spoiler)
"She used a wooden figure of the Blessed Virgin to penetrate the sex of Benedetta and make her to crisis
[Priest smash the table] Crimen Nefastum"

It's like Showgirls in a convent, and I mean that in the next possible sense.

Verhoeven tackles the church / politics in his own way and no one gets up afterwards. While the male gaze is very present in this analysis of a cult of personality, anyone who expected anything else of Verhoeven hasn't truly seen any of his movies.

As for the nudity in the film... 1) Guys, it's a Verhoeven film, 2) haven't we graduated beyond the grade school mentality of "Ooh, boobies!" when discussing film (or anything else, for that matter)?

PS Virginie Efira turns in yet another electric performance and Daphne Patakia continues to impress. She truly is an exciting up and coming actress (you have to see Djam / Journey from Greece if you haven't yet).

It is not a bad film, and it should portrait a real story. But its novelization is way too heavy, and it is never clear what is realistic, and what plot devices were used just to help the narration and to keep the audience engaged and the overall spectacularization. And this aspect also steals some reflection opportunities, as there is always the risk to make judgements and opinions on purely fictional and historical imprecise elements.

Steamy, scandalous, and often sacrilegious. Verhoeven's film is well made but overlong.