Paul Verhoeven hits back at critics of ‘Benedetta’ sex scenes

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CANNES, France -- The veteran provocateur Paul Verhoeven premiered his lesbian nun drama “Benedetta” at the Cannes Film Festival with a solemn vow to resurrect sexuality in movies.“Benedetta” predictably stirred the French Riviera festival over the weekend. In it, the Belgian actor Virginie Efira stars as Benedetta Carlini, a 17th-century French nun who communicates directly with Jesus and who falls in love with a farm girl saved by the convent (Daphné Patakia).

At the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Paul Verhoeven’s competition title Benedetta this morning, director and cast fielded a series of questions about the film’s use of nudity and sex while Verhoeven bristled at the suggestion Benedetta is in any way blasphemous. “I do not understand really how you can be blasphemous about something that happened… You cannot basically change history after the fact.

K.J. Yossman “Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven slammed the new “puritanism” he perceives has taken over cinema during a charged Cannes press conference for his latest film “Benedetta,” saying critics “don’t want to look at the reality of life.”The Belgian auteur has received a generally positive response to his risqué new film, which stars Virginie Efira and Daphne Patakia as two nuns embarking on an illicit lesbian affair in their convent.

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For just a moment, as a particularly sepulchral stretch of Anne Dudley‘s liturgical score plays over a solemn black screen emblazoned with the words “inspired by real events,” you might think Paul Verhoeven‘s gone and gotten serious on us, and that “Benedetta,” his hotly lusted-after Cannes title is going to be, whisper it, tasteful.

Ever the bad boy even into his 80s, director Paul Verhoeven stirs the pot and turns the heat up to the boiling point in Benedetta, a medieval brew of religious fervor, illicit lesbian sex in a convent, Catholic church politics and — to incidentally add a contemporaneous touch — a plague sweeping the land.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorRacy sex in a convent? Explicit dreams about Jesus Christ? A coming-of-age lesbian love story? Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” featured all that and more, leaving its premiere audience at the Cannes Film Festival searching for words to describe the movie they’d just seen.But in the end, the French approved.

Sharon Stone recently shocked everyone with her comments related to the filming of one of Basic Instinct's explicit scenes. The actress in her recently released memoir opened up about the infamous interrogation scene and suggested that she was tricked into it.

could be some other woman's back.But late on Thursday, July 8, to set the record straight: She out of the pic, and she doesn't care how anyone feels about that. Alongside a meme of a woman giving the middle finger and the phrase “While you're talking behind my back, feel free to bend down and KISS MY ASS” she wrote, “Ok so ...

Basic Instinct‘s famous leg-crossing scene.In her recent memoir The Beauty Of Living Twice, Stone stated Verhoeven tricked her into shooting the scene without underwear – among various other anecdotes about sexism and intimidation in the industry – by suggesting that Stone’s underwear was reflecting the light poorly, and asking her to remove them with the caveat that no frontal nudity would appear in the final film.“My memory is radically different from Sharon’s memory,” the director told

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (“RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Elle“) will finally debut his erotic lesbian nun drama “Benedetta” at the Cannes Film Festival this week, following a year of waiting around for the COVID-19 pandemic to subside. READ MORE: Watch 3 Clips From Paul Verhoeven’s Erotic Lesbian Nun Thriller ‘Benedetta’ Premiering At Cannes During the pandemic, the director seemingly had a lot of time to consider his next couple of movies.

He shocked the Netherlands in the ’70s and ’80s and scandalized Hollywood in the ’90s. Now Paul Verhoeven is bringing his lesbian nun saga to Cannes. What could go wrong?

Even if you’ve never seen Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct,” you’re likely familiar with the scene that shocked the world where the film’s star, Sharon Stone, seductively opens her legs while wearing a dress and allowing everyone to see that she wasn’t wearing underwear. It’s a scene that overshadowed the entire film and became a pop culture touchstone that was referenced for years to come.

“Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven has responded to Sharon Stone’s claims about that famous leg-crossing scene.