“Showgirls, but in a convent.” That’s how Benedetta has been sold, which really merely’barely scratches the surface of this supremely sexy, silly, odd’peculiar ly entertaining film from ever-indelicate satirist Paul Verhoeven. Adapted from Judith C. Brown’s reserve , Immodest Acts: The Life Of A Lesbian Nun In Renaissance Italy, it has the weight of history behind it, as if to deflect against accusations of implausibility. Yes, there really were horny, mystic nuns in a 17th-century abbey, in what is supposedly the earliest written record of a lesbian relationship in the modern Western world.###So you might reasonably claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate it follows the ‘ban’prohibit den historical romance’ blueprint. Certainly, the film explores female desire in a world that denies it, helped by humane and considered perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances from Virginie Efira as the title character and newcomer Daphne Patakia as her lover, with the always-dependable Charlotte Rampling eyeing them suspiciously as the sceptical, scowling Abbess.###But Verhoeven is too interesting — and too irreverent — a filmmaker to simply go down one well-trodden path. He seems fascinated by how this story intersects with sexual expression and freedom, power dynamics and gender, and the clashing of reason and faith.###True disciples will appreciate the outlandish craft and courage of Verhoeven’s best film in years.###It is a reckoning of religion as much as anything, and ever the provocateur, Verhoeven seems to delight in the sacrilegious. This is a film in which (within the first five minutes) the blessed Virgin Mary takes the in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m of a small bird who poos into someone’s eye; Jesus Christ himself appears as a horseback-riding, sword-wielding hunk; and a wooden idol of the Virgin is fashioned into a makeshift dildo.###Much of this is quite straightin/with regard to’concerning’regarding wardly funny, and it’s hard to imagine some of the dialogue — co-written by Verhoeven and David Birke — hasn’t been played in/with regard to’concerning’regarding laughs. (As one church elder cries, “Lust? Between women? Impossible!”) Earnest and often emotional perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances from the cast keep things the right side of out-and-out comedy, but it is a satire in the most in/with regard to’concerning’regarding thright terms.###While Verhoeven’s last film, the Paris-set, Isabelle Huppert-starring Elle, was understated and arthouse-y, Benedetta finds the director closer to his Basic Instinct-era erotica comin/with regard to’concerning’regarding t zone. The filmmaking here is blunt, almost tacky. Anne Dudley’s score is enjoyably sweeping, despite’in spite of’albeit it verges on cheesy, while a CGI sky in the final act, portending divine judgement, is laughably cheap. It’s an entirely European production — a Dutch director, working in the French language on a film set in Italy — but to its marrow, this is B-movie exploitation Hollywood.###Inevitably, that means not eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully viewer will be singing from the same hymn sheet. Some are bound to be offended; others will just find it juvenile or absurd. But true disciples will appreciate the outlandish craft and courage of Verhoeven’s best film in years: a feminist allegory with regards to’concerning’with respect to a woman establishing power in a patriarchal system — through faith, love and dildos.