“It definitely left me exposed and vulnerable.”

Sex-positive erotic thriller from filmmaker Halina Reijn baby girlstarring Nicole Kidman in a typically bold performance, may have just changed, well…mood…at the Venice Film Festival.

baby girlThe film’s first press screening in Italy on Friday morning was met with rapturous applause, and the film’s many sexual moments and subtle thematic messages are likely to spark lively discussions among festivalgoers up and down the Lido. The awards ceremony surrounding Kidman’s performance has officially begun, and the commercial winning streak of A24, which produced the film and will be released in the United States on December 25, seems to be guaranteed.

baby girl Kidman stars as a high-powered CEO who puts her career and family in jeopardy when she begins a torrid romance with a much younger intern (played by Harris Dickinson) .triangle of sadness, iron claw). Without giving away spoilers, the real themes of this fun and propulsive film are power dynamics, female contentment, and the importance of open communication around intimacy. Antonio Banderas stars alongside Kidman’s sweet, age-appropriate husband Jakob, defying the sex goddess image of his early career in a witty way.

As the film’s press materials summarize: “In its deliciously funny provocation, baby girl Explore the tenderness, wicked fun and unexpected romance that a certain kind of repression can lead to, and where people will go to find release.

Rijin and her cast members appeared at a press conference in Venice on Friday afternoon to discuss the creation of the film together for the first time.

“It definitely left me exposed and vulnerable and scared, all those things, when it was presented to the world,” Kidman said of the experience of premiering the film in front of an audience. “But being with these people here, it’s subtle, intimate, and very, very profound.”

She added: “We’re all a little nervous right now – so I guess, 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 continue to push forward with the films that are still being made, Especially movies helmed by women.

Later at a Venice press conference, Kidman added: “I think that’s why it’s so compelling, because in Halina’s hands [as my director]because I know she won’t exploit me. I mean, no matter how anyone explains it, I don’t feel exploited. I feel like I’m a part of it. This is a story I want to be a part of, a story I want to tell, and every part of me is committed to this story.

Kidman admits she has worked on many sex-themed movies and TV series (Keep your eyes open, die for, lies big and smallto name a few), but she emphasized how baby girl Provides something new.

“I’ve worked with so many directors, but I’ve never worked with a woman on this subject,” she said in a statement before the press screening. “When you talk to a female director and she says, ‘Okay, let’s work together to climax’ — and I say that bluntly, but you don’t say that to a man. [Halina] He was always loving to all of us, to Antonio, to Harris, to me, to Sophie, to all of us. It’s a very warm working environment.

Reijin makes US debut with Gen Z horror satire Institutional Institutional Institutional (2022), also produced by A24. but baby girl Returning to the more erotic tone of his directorial debut, the 2019 Dutch drama instinctchronicling the illicit relationship between a prison therapist and an incarcerated sex offender.

in a revealing interview hollywood reporterLei Jin said baby girl Clearly inspired by the sex thrillers of the 1990s, particularly the work of Paul Verhoeven. “I was incredibly inspired by all the sex thrillers of the ’90s,” she explains. “basic instinct, fatal attraction, 9 1/2 weeks, indecent proposalnot only because they entertained me at the time, but also because I found it strange that they were actually watched by them, even though they were all directed by men who sometimes had a less than friendly view of women.

Rekin, a Dutch actress who worked with Verhoeven in supporting roles before becoming a director, says black bookdirectly integrated into her creative process baby girl.

“Paul Verhoeven always told me that I could only make a film if I had a specific problem,” she explained in a statement released by A24. “For this story, I wanted to know: are we animals or civilizations? Can we make peace with the animal within us? Is it possible for the different parts of us to coexist, allowing us to love our whole selves shamelessly?

When the reporter mentioned this matter baby girl Rather than revolving around the punishment of the heroine like the erotic thrillers of the 1990s, Reijin explains: “I think all of us – men, women, giraffes, whatever – all living things, you know, are different side, and there is a beast inside each of us,” Rekin said at a news conference. “We haven’t had enough space for women to explore this behavior, not just how strong we are, but how weak we can be at times. I was raised by parents who didn’t believe in good and evil, and I think we Both. We need to keep focusing on that because once we suppress it, it becomes dangerous. So that’s why I don’t want my characters to be punished. I just want them to be.

Toward the end of the press conference, Reijin drew laughter and cheers from the crowd by urging men to pay attention to the “huge” physical differences between men and women.

baby girl It will have its official world premiere on Friday evening at the Sala Grande Cinema in Venice. Later that evening, A24 will host a film event at the iconic Hotel Cipriani, which has become the hottest ticket in the Lido.