Hello everyone. My name is Halina Reijn and I’m the author and director of “Babygirl”. So the story of this film is a few woman who seems to have every thing: a ravishing family, a beautiful husband and an important job. She runs her own company in the sphere of robotics. Yet she finds herself drawn to her male intern, a really forbidden relationship – “Oh, you're here.” – who will dominate her sexually? And that is their first long encounter in a hotel room. And she's on their own in there, waiting for him. She's totally dressed up. And then he is available in underclothed, wearing a hoodie and a small plastic bag from a bodega. And the very first thing he says is, “Oh, you're here.” So he's not even impressed by the proven fact that she's there. “It's… What you're doing is wrong.” Of course, this can also be an influence play. This entire film is about power, control and give up. And this scene is especially concerning the power dynamic between our most important characters. And what could be very essential to me about this scene is that the scene is a performance inside a performance. The whole film is about performances. The whole film is about theater. It starts with a fake orgasm. It ends with an actual orgasm. That's why we continually ask the audience what’s real and what’s fake. And is it possible to turn into our authentic selves? And what does that mean exactly? “I don’t really know how. What do you want from me? Because you show up here. You don't know me. I am a stranger dressed like this. You expect me to just look at you and do nothing?” For this scene specifically, we actually asked the actors to indicate that they were delivering. “Get on your knees.” “No, what?” “Get on your knees now.” “That's me, no!” So they keep changing their character and leaving it. And you may see Harris Dickinson playing this young intern. He's really experimenting with what masculinity is. Who can I be as a person within the age of maturity? What can I do? How can I remain respectful while still dominating this woman, which is clearly what he demands? “I think I have power over you because I could make one phone call and you lose everything.” And yet we see this woman who has a lot power and particularly over this intern, but chooses to, humiliated by him to turn into. And why am I doing this for myself? Why am I telling this story? This is because I feel that complete freedom and an actual liberation implies that we must always connect with our inner, animal side. The moment we start suppressing the beast and say: no, I don't have a beast, I’ll do Botox. I’ll sit in ice baths. I’ll sit in oxygen chambers and do all of the therapies I can consider to create this perfect image of my identity, after which everyone will love me. This is after all a mistake. “No, I don’t like that. Not like that, not like that, I don't like that. I don't want it like that. My film is a cautionary tale about what happens while you deny that you could have a darker side inside you. Stop! Please open your eyes
image credit : www.nytimes.com