Halina Reijn desires to bridge Hollywood’s “orgasm hole.”
“It’s enormous! Big!” the Dutch actress-turned-director exclaims, gesticulating wildly over our Zoom name to debate her new movie, Babygirl. “In Hollywood films, we nonetheless see girls having orgasms which are bodily simply not potential, a minimum of for 99 % of ladies!”
The orgasms in Babygirl, which premieres on the Venice Movie Pageant, it’s secure to say, will likely be extra practical. And there will likely be loads of them. After her U.S. debut, the Gen Z slasher satire Our bodies Our bodies Our bodies (2022), Reijn returns to the extra erotic tones of her first function, the 2019 Dutch drama Intuition, which chronicled a bootleg relationship between a jail therapist and an incarcerated intercourse offender.
Babygirl stars Nicole Kidman as a high-powered CEO married to the age-appropriate and undeniably horny Jakob (Antonio Banderas) who embarks on a forbidden romance with a a lot youthful intern, performed by Triangle of Unhappiness and Iron Claw star Harris Dickinson. A24, which was behind Our bodies Our bodies Our bodies, and launched Intuition within the U.S., is planning a Dec. 20 bow for Babygirl.
Forward of the movie’s Venice premiere, Reijn talked with The Hollywood Reporter about giving a feminist spin on the Nineteen Nineties erotic thriller, the politics of the post-#MeToo period and bringing intercourse again to the flicks. “As a client, generally I simply need to see a scorching, horny film with scorching those who turns me on a little bit bit.”
I actually cherished your U.S. debut Our bodies, Our bodies Our bodies, however this movie appears lots nearer, thematically, to your first Dutch movie, Intuition. Does it really feel extra provocative exploring these themes in a giant American context, versus a Dutch artwork home movie?
I imply, we’re all human, and we’re all struggling roughly with the identical issues. However in fact, in America, it’s a type of heightened even, as a result of right here individuals are a little bit extra repressed, in my eyes, than within the Netherlands. However for me, what is restricted about this movie is that it’s actually about self-love, whereas Intuition was actually about self-destruction, After we had been capturing Black Ebook [in which Reijn co-starred] Paul Verhoeven instructed me: ‘Once you direct, you all the time should be answering a query.’ With Intuition, the query was: “Why do I do issues that I do know are dangerous for me, however I nonetheless do them? Why is there a beast inside this civilized individual?”
With Babygirl, the query was: “How can I like all elements of myself?” As a result of I just like the elements of myself which are accepted by society, however I detest elements of myself, am embarrassed by elements that aren’t. I wished to make a film to inform myself that intercourse is one thing that we will have a good time and revel in. As an alternative of pondering: “Oh, my God, why do I’ve all these taboo, forbidden fantasies?” That is actually the story of a girl who liberates herself.
How does sexuality and the movie’s different themes play out in another way in an American context?
Nicely, to begin with, and that is what I discovered so enjoyable doing Our bodies Our bodies Our bodies, is that every thing’s larger in America. Whether or not you order a cola or hamburger, once you’re strolling down the road, it’s all a lot larger than in Europe. So I actually wished to make a film with an enormous scale. Which is why Nicole Kidman is ideal for the movie. Since you don’t get any larger than her. She performs this very highly effective CEO of a robotics firm. And the affair that takes place is within the office, the place, in America, lower than in Europe, there’s an actual hierarchy and much more guidelines about what’s allowed and what’s not allowed. Which heightens the sense of an affair like this being actually forbidden, actually taboo.
It’s attention-grabbing you point out Verhoeven as a result of it seems like this movie is drawing on these ’90s erotic thrillers that he helped make well-known.
I used to be extremely impressed by all of the sexual thrillers of the ’90s: Primary Intuition, Deadly Attraction, 9 1/2 Weeks, Indecent Proposal, not solely as a result of they entertained me on the time, but in addition as a result of I felt actually seen by them, weirdly, regardless that they had been all directed by males and had a generally not-too-friendly view of ladies. However I felt very seen by these films as a result of as a girl with my needs, I all the time felt like an alien. And people films type of instructed me that these darker needs had been okay, regardless that, on the finish of the film, the lady principally will get punished. This movie is my reply, my feminine reply, to these movies. It’s actually in dialog with these movies and appears with a little bit of humor on the male gaze. I’m exploring the problems of energy and intercourse in our present second, however to have a little bit of enjoyable with it too.
How is it totally different to inform these tales within the post-#MeToo period?
Nicely, I feel we have now made an enormous leap ahead for the reason that ’90s so far as feminism and inclusion and all of that, is anxious and that’s all extremely constructive. I feel the explanation that I’m in a position to direct now’s due to that as a result of there’s area for girls now. However once I assume again about these ’90s movies, they had been about need and I don’t assume there are a whole lot of American movies which were made about feminine need, feminine sexuality. I feel that’s fairly new, and I feel there’s nonetheless a whole lot of worry round that. There may be nonetheless an enormous orgasm hole, enormous! It’s gotten higher on TV however in films, in larger Hollywood films, we nonetheless see girls having orgasms which are bodily simply not potential, a minimum of for 99 % of ladies. I wished to make an enormous, tremendous entertaining juice movie about sexuality, however be very trustworthy about it.
These movies, the erotic thrillers, you point out, type of disappeared from the American film scene.
In cinema, sexuality simply disappeared. [Basic Instinct director] Paul Verhoeven is all the time complaining about that: “The place’s the intercourse in American movies?” Now with Challengers and Saltburn, it’s coming again a little bit bit, nevertheless it had been absent from mainstream cinema for a very long time.
It simply appeared like we turned very petrified of sexuality. However I feel there’s a common want and a starvation for it — a necessity to take a look at intercourse in an trustworthy means and to see the humor in it. We have now all these new guidelines about consent, that are superb and tremendous necessary. However on the identical time, we’re nonetheless animalistic, and we have to nonetheless have a look at that a part of ourselves. I feel that’s the place this urge comes from to make these films.
As a client, generally I simply need to see a scorching, horny film with scorching those who turns me on a little bit bit. This isn’t gentle porn. We’re actually making an attempt to make a layered and attention-grabbing film, however on the identical time, we wish it to be horny. In Europe, there have been all the time smaller films about these topics, however by no means these larger films. So I welcome it again. I feel it’s superb, and I feel it’s joyous to take a seat in a cinema with 300 individuals and watch a really horny film. I can’t consider something extra enjoyable than that.