But Robocop Last Year Was A Shock

60th Academy Awards (Pee-wee Herman, ED-209 & Robocop scene)

(1988)

 

It's about that time of the year where poor homeless people are kicked out of their make-shift shelters while insufferable celebrities roll in on the red carpet and give themselves a corporate reacharound. It's The Oscars, folks; the annual reminder that the Romans had it right with the treatment of their luvvies back then. The audacity of championing whatever cause is currently in vogue, while dressed to the nines in their obscenely expensive threads, is completely lost on these overpaid adult pretenders, but hey, I'm not here to talk about any of that malarkey; I'm here to share one great memory I have of the Academy Awards.

It's 1988 and The Oscars are an important time for this humble blogger since 1987 had a bumper crop of classic movies all deserving of an award by the industry: Predator, Evil Dead II, Hellraiser, Wall Street, Lost Boys, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Hidden, Opera, Stagefright, The Running Man, Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop II, Prince of Darkness, Bad Taste and Adventures in Baby Sitting. Unfortunately, none of those titles meant anything to poncey film snobs. One particular film, however, which undoubtedly left a cultural impact was Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi actioner, Robocop - part man, part machine, all classic. Lo and behold Pee-wee presenting an award for the best short film (live action) category and ED-209 gatecrashing the event. What ensues is a remarkably surreal scenario with Pee-wee flying off above the audience and Robocop firing laser bolts at his robotic foe. It was and still is a glorious moment from the Academy Awards. Perhaps the only positive memory when I'm reminded of this ridiculous shindig.

A pity Robocop, or any of the other movies I listed didn't win Best Picture, instead it was Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor; a film only remembered these days for being parodied that time on The Simpsons, when Homer was the prophecised chosen one by The Stonecutters. "Who rigs every Oscars night?" They do. They do.

Holy Diver

Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven, 2021)

Never would have expected a movie which is essentially The Devils meets Blue Is The Warmest Colour to drop this decade, let alone this year (definitely can relate to that, since bloggin' isn't exactly a popular activity these days). Leave it to the always uncompromising swagger of legendary, Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven to deliver a historial drama based around 17th century, miracle nun, Benedetta Carlini. The result is a lesbian-romance drama filled to the absolute brim with enough sex and violence that would have given Mary Whitehouse a coronary if she were around today.

 As someone who occasionally dips their toes into the nunsploitation subgenre, Benedetta was a way more professional and lavish offering compared to any of the titles I watched in that sphere; even with the unexpected toilet humour. However, the film still packs a walloping punch in terms of controversy, even when compared to some of the more notorious entries in the subgenre. 

A personal highlight is when our devout heroine drops her vocal pitch down a few notches and ends up sounding like Paul Shane during her stigmata scenes.

It's a phenomenal feat for an octogenarian like Verhoeven to still deliver the goods, when most of his peers have either popped their clogs already, or fallen the fuck off  (*cough* Spielberg *cough*). You won't get anything like this from any major Hollywood studio. A more than welcome gatecrasher to the party this year.

Benedetta (Trailer)

(Paul Verhoeven, 2021)

While I'm still here, Benedetta reminded me of the pain in still not tracking down Alessandro Allessandroni's soundtrack to Giulio Berruti's Killer Nun after so many years.