Director Watch Podcast Ep. 113 - 'Benedetta' (Paul Verhoeven, 2021)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 113 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello discuss the last film in their Paul Verhoeven series, Benedetta (2021).

For Verhoeven’s latest film, the director reteamed with his Elle collaborator David Birke, to make a religious film, as he’s an expert scholar of the Jesus Seminar, even writing a book in 2007 entitled Jesus of Nazareth. Though his adaptation of his book, along with several other projects, didn’t come to head, he was able to make Benedetta, a loose adaptation of Judith C. Brown’s Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, following the life of a nun (Virginie Efira) who joins the Italian convent while she was a young child and later has a forbidden love affair with another nun, while also seeing religious visions that make her seem like she has direct contact with Jesus. Wickedly hilarious, sensual, and fascinating, Benedetta is a thorny tale of the complexities of faith, as well as Verhoeven’s critique of the church, an institution that he’s examined for all of his life. Ryan, Jay, and Sophia break down their thoughts on the film, just how funny the film is, if it has more to say than what Verhoeven is bringing up on the surface, the dream sequences, Benedetta’s struggles with temptation, Jay’s love of The Great Gatsby, Sophia’s story about seeing the film at the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and splinters. And seeing that it is the end of the series, the boys give out their Paul Verhoeven rankings as well as preview their new director series starting new week.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 2h44m. The guys will be back next week to begin their new series on the films of Yasujirō Ozu with a review of his film, Late Spring. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).