In Benedetta, master provocateur Paul Verhoeven demolishes the line between the sacred and the profane. The breast becomes holy, a source of nourishment from which religious fervour can stem. The Virgin Mary, in turn, inspires not only boundless grace but sexual desire. One of the first moments of clarity experienced by the young Benedetta – newly enrolled by her father into a Tuscan convent – sees a statue of Mary collapse on top of her as she prays for guidance.…

In my early twenties, I experienced what you might call an “intense Nicolas Cage” phase – a hyperfix-Cage-tion, if you will. At its height, I was watching his notoriously unhinged 2006 remake of The Wicker Man on a near-monthly basis, with my in-jokes progressing beyond merely quoting it (“Not the bees!”; “How’d it get burned!”) to referencing obscure bits of set dressing in it. Do you remember that the epi-pen Cage’s character carries around for his bee allergy is specifically…