Director Halina Reijn's Sex-Positive Erotic Thriller Girlstarring Nichole Kidman in a characteristically bold performance, may have just changed the, errr… Humor… at the Venice Film Festival.
GirlEarly press screenings of in Italy received thunderous applause on Friday morning, and the film’s numerous sexual moments and thematically subtle message could be heard sparking lively discussion among festival-goers up and down the Lido. The awards chatter surrounding Kidman’s performance has officially begun, and a commercial winning streak for A24, which produced the film and will release it in the U.S. on December 20, seems fully assured.
Girl Kidman plays a high-powered CEO who jeopardizes her career and family when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson (Triangle of sadness, Iron Claw). Without giving away any spoilers, the film’s propulsive themes are power dynamics, female gratification, and the importance of open communication about intimacy. Playing against the sex-god image of his early career with remarkable wit, Antonio Banderas plays Kidman’s sweet, age-appropriate husband, Jakob.
As the film's press materials sum up: “In its delightfully playful provocations, Girl explores the tender, wickedly funny and unexpectedly romantic places a certain kind of repression can lead to, and where some will go to find release.”
“It definitely leaves me exposed and vulnerable and scared and all those things when it’s put out into the world,” Kidman said of the experience of debuting the film in front of an audience. “But to do it with these people here, it was delicate and intimate and very, very profound.”
She added: “We're all a little nervous at the moment, so I hope my hands aren't shaking, but at the same time I'm really proud to be at a festival like this and to be moving forward with films that are still being made, especially with women at the helm.”
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson appear in a still from Halina Reijn's film A24 Girl.
Kidman admitted that she has worked on many sex-centric films and TV series (to name a few), but said that Babygirl offered something new.
“I've worked with so many directors, I've never worked with a woman on this subject,” he said in statements shared with the press ahead of press screenings. “When you talk to a female director and she says, 'OK, let's work on this orgasm together' — I mean it bluntly, but you wouldn't say that to a guy. [Halina] He was always so loving towards all of us, towards Antonio, towards Harris, towards me, towards Sophie, towards all of us. It was just a very warm environment to work in.”
She also praised her male co-stars, Dickinson and Banderas, who she said approached the film's erotic scenes with a similar spirit of collaboration and generosity.
“[They] They were like, yeah, we're going to come and be there with you and be your partners in this storytelling, but we're not the center of the story. I love them for being there with all their openness. They were so generous with us,” she added.
Reijin made its U.S. debut with the Gen Z slasher satire Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), also produced by A24. But Babygirl returns to the more erotic tones of the director's first feature film, the 2019 Dutch drama Instinctwhich chronicled the illicit relationship between a prison psychologist and an incarcerated sex offender.
In a revealing interview with The Hollywood ReporterReijn said Girl was explicitly inspired by 90s sex thrillers, particularly the work of Paul Verhoeven. “I was incredibly inspired by all the 90s sex thrillers,” she explained.Basic instinct, Fatal Attraction, 9 and a half weeks, Indecent proposalnot only because they entertained me at the time, but also because I felt really watched by them, strangely, even though they were all directed by men and had a sometimes not-so-friendly view of women.”
Reijin, a Dutch actress before turning director, said that acting and working with Verhoeven in a supporting role in his film Black Book directly influenced her creative process for Babygirl.
“Paul Verhoeven always told me that I could only make a film if I had a specific question,” she explains in a statement released by A24. “For this story I asked myself: Are we animals or are we civilized? Can we make peace with the animal inside us? Is it possible for different parts of ourselves to coexist and, in turn, to love ourselves in our entirety without shame?”
Girl will have its official world premiere at Venice’s Sala Grande cinema on Friday night. Later that night, A24 will host a party for the film at the iconic Hotel Cipriani, which has already become the hottest ticket on the Lido.