Directed by Paul Verhoeven, the 1985 cult classic L'amore e il sangue (Flesh + Blood) is a gritty, unromanticized depiction of 16th-century Italy, starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film is renowned for subverting medieval tropes, utilizing visceral realism to explore themes of survival and religious fanaticism through a complex, often dark, narrative.