Benedetta: It was sweltering on the Croisette this past week, where perennial bad boy and octogenarian Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Basic Instinct) returned to crank it up a few more notches. It’s hard to know what to say about Benedetta. Predictably controversial, the opening act teeters into campy B-movie territory and then slyly shifts from gratuitous eye candy to subversive and substantive social history. Both loved and loathed, one thing is for sure: Verhoeven still knows how to push buttons. 

More movies, fewer people. After a pandemic-induced hiatus last year, the Festival de Cannes has returned truer to form by doubling down with ultra-strong programming rather than frothy festivities.

With Abel Ferrera’s Siberia set for its theatrical release, Willem Dafoe talked to IndieWire’s Eric Kohn on a variety of topics, including his ongoing aversion to television projects. As he says, “The definition between those two gets a little fuzzy, but the one thing that remains pretty consistent is stuff that’s narrative-based — where it’s based on writers and characters — that’s for TV. While I think cinema can do very well with those things, it can also go beyond that. It can bend time and…