Nicole Kidman is earning some of the best reviews of her career for Babygirl, which premiered in the main competition section at the Venice Film Festival. The erotic thriller sees 57-year-old Kidman play a tough businesswoman whose cushy life comes crashing down when she begins an affair with a much younger male intern. Kidman, who has built a career on risky, unpredictable roles, said the film has left her more ‘exposed’ than ever before. As the rest of the world awaits the release of Babygirl in a few months, perhaps it’s most apt to look back at the Australian actor’s illustrious career and pick out a film that still haunts me to this day. (Also read: Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl stuns Venice: Her upcoming projects prove she’s still going strong)
Nicole Kidman was born
One such film is Birth, directed by Jonathan Glazer. Timely, Birth also premiered exactly two decades ago in Venice in 2004. Kidman was still the face of that perplexing, quirky film. She is still here, as a daring and curious actress, doing films with relatively new filmmakers and exposing herself to their off-the-grid visions. Even if the film is lackluster, Kidman is always on the high point, always there to lift it up undeniably.
Birth somehow sums up all of these characteristics. It tells the impossible story of Anna (Kidman), who is set to marry again after losing her husband, Sean, ten years earlier. She has no idea that a 10-year-old boy barges into her apartment and announces that he is her husband, reincarnated. It’s a ridiculous premise, whether you believe in reincarnation or not. Anna agrees, too, and makes fun of the little boy upon first meeting him. However, he sticks to his word. ‘I’m Sean,’ he says with a firmness that is strange for a boy his age. He tells her that she is making a huge mistake by marrying again. When she comes to meet him outside in the park, it happens to be the same place where Sean died. The little boy also reveals intimate details about the family and their relationship that only they could know.
Anna’s turmoil
At the center of this unusual crisis is Kidman, whose Anna does not want to believe what this little boy says. However, she gradually chooses to face the possibility, first depicted in a single take sequence that focuses entirely on her face. Anna is sitting in a theater, but her mind is elsewhere. A range of emotions appear on her face: hope, wonder, grief, and the shock of whether this could be true. This is the emotional center of this peculiar film, and Kidman presents this vision with such nonchalance that it is mesmerizing to watch. Anna initially appears as someone who would laugh at the idea, but throughout the film, she is constantly in some kind of turmoil, shaking inside, fighting with herself over the possibility that her husband has returned. In the end, she is unrecognizable at all, culminating in that devastating final scene by the sea.
One Interview In a conversation with Los Angeles Times, the actress shared her thoughts on the film and said, “I don’t find it weird, but maybe that means I am weird. But I never found it weird. I found it very profound, in the way it deals with grief and how people fill in the loopholes to explain things, need to explain things and then be incredibly open to all the possibilities when you’re in a very vulnerable state.”
Birth has many ups and downs, and it may disappoint many viewers due to its absurd choices. Still, the film works as a study of faith and how far one can go to believe in a solid possibility. Birth can also work as an interrogation on community and social structures. Most of all, it works as a brave confrontation on the grief that never ends. It only accumulates and hides beneath other emotions.
Anna’s trust in Sean continues to grow, and it manifests so intensely that she even dreams about the possibility of running away from him and starting a new life. She is willing to sacrifice her situation, her entire life, and face the consequences. She is willing to give a second chance to her love, which she so relentlessly longed for but never found. Kidman, in a display of brute strength, makes it all work.
This is Weekend Ticket, where Shantanu Das talks about such movies and shows based on the recent releases.
