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Could ‘Babygirl’ Have Been Made by a Male Director?


The answer is about the power of women's voices. But it's also about what we, as a culture, allow.

There’s an old saying that goes, “Sex isn’t good unless it’s dirty,” and I think what that expresses is that it’s intrinsic to the nature of human sexuality that people are drawn, in the erotic arena, to acting out things that feel “naughty” or “bad” or whatever. Kidman’s character, Romy, is trapped in a gilded and proper upper-class domestic existence, with a husband, played by Antonio Banderas, who loves and supports her, and two daughters she’s devoted to. “Fatal Attraction,” also directed by Adrian Lyne (and also an influence on Reijn), is infinitely better than “9½ Weeks,” but it’s less about sexuality than a new line in the sand that women were drawing, with Glenn Close’s Alex telling Michael Douglas’s sneaky adulterer: I will not be used and thrown away.

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