A new trailer for Paul Verhoeven's highly anticipated Benedetta has been released, and it promises not to disappoint fans.
Verhoeven is the Dutch director behind for the likes of Total Recall, Elle, and Basic Instinct.
His new French language film, Benedetta, looks set to join the director's portfolio of erotic thrillers, as it follows the life of a lesbian nun in 17th century Italy.
The movie stars Belgian actor Virginie Efira as Benedetta, a nun who attracts the attention of her convent when she claims to be gripped by intense visions from God. It is at the convent where she meets Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia).
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The two embark on an affair, with the film raising questions about the nature of faith, sexuality and gender politics.
Efira had a small role in Verhoeven's film Elle, where she played the role of a complex, pious neighbour. It is this sense of obsessive spirituality that the actress seems to carry over into her new role as Benedetta.
The film is based on Judith Brown's 1986 book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy.
The non-fiction work follows the like of Catholic nun Benedetta Carlini, the movie's namesake.
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While the film was initially set to premiere at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, it was pushed back due to Verhoeven's hip surgery and the pandemic.
The film premiered in 2021, with the director saying he felt 'unpleasant' during the festival screening.
In an interview with IndieWire, Verhoeven said of the delayed festival screening, 'There’s something depressing about the whole thing. It took me some time, because I felt a bit alienated from the movie, even in the projection here. I was looking at the movie like somebody else had done it.'
He then added that he felt 'unpleasant' and began to question, 'Do I still like this? Am I wrong here?', before adding that after the first 60 minutes he began to feel better about the film.
The director then explained that he wasn't sure how the film would be received, adding, 'You go into a situation with a movie knowing for some people it’s going to be difficult. I realised people could feel provoked by it, yeah, sure, I knew, but you don’t know how much.'
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However, he added that the set of the film was somewhere 'everybody had fun, even the actresses. Everyone liked to work on it, everybody came to the set with pleasure, and there were no problems, everybody was stepping forward to make it better'.
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