"Benedetta" is the name of the main female character. The naming represents the attitude towards individuality of both the director and the film: to see and respect individuals, even if what happens to her is difficult to evaluate, complex, or even slightly insane. The entire film is like a dialogue between insanity and rationality, and it is a highly ironic dialogue. Paul Verhoeven uses skilled image techniques to immerse us in the "miracle" of whether Benedetta is real or fake from the beginning of the film.
The movie presents a series of dramas and farces that highlight the contrast with the mystery. There are church performances for the poor, Benedetta's performance for the church, and her performance for everyone. What is the fundamental difference between the behaviour of the church and Benedetta? Or is there no difference at all? If the means are the same, are the essence or purpose of the church and Benedetta the same? - I believe they are different.
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If we want to explore Benedetta's purpose, we must first discuss whether if she is insane. This requires discussing the three female characters and their transformations.
The Dean Felicita
As a representative of the system and an enforcer of power, is she really a believer in Jesus Christ? My personal opinion is that there's a high chance she is not. However, she knows the benefits which the church and faith can bring her - a place for her and her daughter to live. It also sets up the plot for her to turn against the special envoy after her daughter's suicide. Benedetta should not have convinced the former dean to switch sides with miracles and lies at the end. As long as Felicita hasn't lost her mind, she should clearly understand what kind of system and male power has allowed her to continue living in a compromised manner. When she sees through the emptiness of power and life, she chooses to end her suffering by committing suicide rather than waiting for divine salvation.
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Poor Nun Bartolomea
She wasn't religious either. Born into poverty, she instinctively focused on survival. If faith and lies don't benefit survival, then there's no need to believe or lie. So after escaping the church, she once again demanded that Benedetta admit her lies. The desires and fears of the poor are highly utilitarian; the one who blesses them is the Virgin Mary, and the one who spreads disease is the devil. Even an emissary can be brought down from their pedestal, and even a liar can be worshipped as the Virgin Mary.
Bartolomea told Benedetta that the first person to support you today will also be the first to send you to hell tomorrow. She understood this truth deeply because she was a part of it, and she did the same for Benedetta.
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Benedetta
In a way, her vision of Jesus was a form of self-deception. After all, to deceive others, one must first deceive oneself. I don't believe she was actually insane, but she could convincingly portray herself as such, blurring the lines between rationality and madness.
Throughout the film, Benedetta's background is repeatedly revealed. She hails from a noble family, manages her mother's finances, and is literate and numerate, even though the nun warns her against appearing too intelligent. Coming from an elite background, Benedetta has been deeply devoted to Jesus since childhood, which could be seen as a young girl's innocent belief in fairy tales. Her father recounts how she was nearly taken by a disease when she was young but was saved by Jesus. It's possible that during her illness, she experienced visions, and since then, has lived in the lie she created for herself.
As she grew up, she began to develop a sense of self, perception, physical sensations, and even emotions. In her journey from listening to Jesus to listening to herself, Jesus became the medium through which she came to believe in herself. So in the end, she wouldn't admit to the nuns that it was all fake because she needed to believe it was real for herself.
By loving everything through Jesus, loving everything is equivalent to loving Jesus and this world. Her faith didn't collapse; instead, it underwent a process of self-reconstruction. She rose through the ranks and faced crises time and again, relying on the "will of Jesus" to achieve her goals.
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If I am for Jesus, then Jesus is for me. Therefore, it is only natural for me to fight for my own interests and gain them through "Jesus' hands."
Unlike Bartolomea, Benedetta was a noble child who not only wanted to survive but also wanted to live with dignity and privileges. Benedetta wasn't against religion; rather, she was deeply immersed in it. Religion was her only means of survival. Without it, there would be no Benedetta or her fantasies, and she couldn't achieve self-realization. What Benedetta ultimately fought for was the right to interpret religion. She rebelled against the fact that in those times, nuns could only listen to priests' sermons, and the Bible and miracles had only one interpretation. She fought for the freedom of her body and the release of her inner desires.
The film employs various details to depict the strict religious discipline and control over people's bodies and minds, as well as the concept of "invisible punishment." It portrays the body as the primary adversary, with intentionally uncomfortable clothing materials. The priest asserts that redemption can only be achieved through suffering, and that only Jesus can bestow pleasure and satisfaction. Confiscation of personal belongings and the loss of private space are part of the physical discipline, aimed at internalization.
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Not only are nuns constantly under surveillance, but they also participate in mutual surveillance while constantly confessing themselves and self-censoring. This same mechanism has been inherited in capitalist society's schools, factories, and offices.
Benedetta is so intelligent that she likely discerned the inner workings of the monastery and church early on. She saw them as a group of individuals fighting for their own interests and privileges under the guise of serving God, with religious lies ensuring their continued privilege. In this environment, Benedetta did not reject her body; instead, she rationalized her needs and emotions by envisioning Jesus. Her methods may seem eccentric, but her goals are deeply personal, unlike those of others. She did not forsake her faith but rather offered her own interpretation. When faced with obstacles presented by the system and its adherents, she used madness as a means to resist and dismantle them.
In Foucault's interpretation of madness, it is mentioned that:
The moral fault occurs because madness corresponds to a radical choice to reject humanity and the human community in favour of animality. The animality of the madman is embodied in their being controlled by passion, which manipulates them into becoming delusional and confusing fantasy for reality.
Madness was opposed to reason, but as an alternative mode of human existence, not a simple rejection of it.
Madness (even if disdained or abhorred) was a meaningful challenge to reason.
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Because "the mind is the cage of the body", all of Benedetta's external behaviors are based on the freedom of her mind. The constant collision between the powerful and ubiquitous discipline and Benedetta's intense desires made her urgently need to find a reasonable outlet. This fulfills Foucault's "ethical construction of the self". Benedetta's "extremely rational madness" is also a mirror, the miracles she performs testify to this collective lie.
No one believed in her miracles because no one believed in Jesus. God was considered dead, and the words of God were merely a facade for the privileged class to maintain their power. The male authorities used the hand of God to punish women and marginalized groups, ignoring the suffering of the poor. Benedetta fought against this hypocrisy and exploitation, exploiting the system's weaknesses to her advantage. In the end, as she walked once more towards the church, she seemed to even cast the shadow of "Jesus," symbolizing her defiance and subversion of the corrupt system.
The film ultimately conveys a sense of power through Benedetta. In a society with narrow-minded ideas and a church that strongly rejects subjective pleasure, Benedetta confidently asserts her rights to sexuality, pleasure, and homosexuality. She is not an anti-Christ; in her world, she believes that Jesus loves her unconditionally. Unafraid, she is willing to embrace madness to combat the decaying and absurd society and its system.
For a long time, women were viewed as either serving men or serving Jesus, and any deviation from this role led to them being labeled as crazy, punished, or driven to madness. The constraints on their lives were suffocatingly narrow. Benedetta's voluntary madness is a proactive, autonomous choice, serving as both a weapon and a form of resistance against the external world while preserving her own subjectivity.
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Her divine meaning has transcended through the centuries and remains thought-provoking to this day. Beyond the external environment and voices, it is more about how one sees oneself and how one relates to oneself. Is Benedetta's way divine or mad? What do you think?
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