The producer of Paul Verhoeven’s film Elle, Saïd Ben Saïd, has just announced Paul Verhoeven’s next project Blessed Virgin. The film is based on historian Judith C. Brown’s 1986 book Immodest Acts: The Life Of A Lesbian Nun In Renaissance Italy, which chronicles the life of Benedetta Carlini.
This is very exciting as there was a time when I thought I’d never see another Verhoeven film. Black Book came out in 2006 and was seen as his comeback film after the admittedly bad Hollow Man ended his reign as Hollywood’s sci-fi maestro. Black Book was well received, but year after year went by with no word of another project. But ten years after Black Book, Verhoeven dropped Elle on us, a stunning film that gave us something that continues to be shockingly rare: a female protagonist as complicated and conflict- ridden as the male anti-heroes we’ve craved for the last 15 years. Thankfully, this time we won’t have to wait another decade for Verhoeven to get back in the saddle.
The historical protagonist, Benedetta, was a Catholic mystic whose visions led to a Church investigation that uncovered her sexual relationship with another sister of the order. Benedetta claimed that the visions were caused by a male demon named ‘Splenditello,’ who possessed her and caused her to molest the other nun.
The film will star Elle alum Virginie Efira, who played the neighbor in the film. Check out the production companies NSFW announcement here.
The script will be written by Gerard Soeteman, who worked with Verhoeven on the criminally underwatched American debut Flesh + Blood, as well as Black Book and much of his early Danish work.
It’s hard to imagine a film project that would get me more excited than this. The only thing to do now is to find a way to pass the months until this comes out. I recommend watching Ken Russell’s The Devils on repeat which also features Church inquisitors, accusations of possession and nuns getting frisky.
