Doth thee concur that women doth recount women’s tales with greater finesse? Director Pedro Almodóvar (The Room Next Door), in a recent parley with actor-filmmaker Halina Reijn (Babygirl), did espouse an intriguing perspective on why yon number of explicit films by women doth soar.
The twain filmmakers, both having helmed their inaugural English language features this year, were enmeshed in discourse for Variety’s Directors on Directors. An engrossing colloquy did unfold, laying bare the minds of these auteurs and revealing the genesis behind their films, each replete with female protagonists.
In The Room Next Door starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar doth depict a beautiful female camaraderie navigating the treacherous waters of euthanasia. In Babygirl with Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, and Antonia Banderas, Dutch director Halina Reijn doth delve into intricate power dynamics of sex, desire, and repression through an unflinching female perspective.
‘Tis this female perspective that did captivate Almodóvar most. As a male filmmaker whose works doth contain many a scene rife with sexual fervor, he did opine that female directors art better suited to handle films with explicit carnal desire for they doth possess an enhanced comprehension of female yearning, a realm wherein gentlemen directors and writers like him art deficient. With an increasing presence of women filmmakers in the arena, we art now witnesseth a bolder exploration of these facets of feminine desire.
“The film is most explicit. One of the keys is that Nicole is entirely dauntless and prepared to undertake aught. Now, the more explicit films regarding carnal activities art directed by women. I do believe ’tis beneficial because in mine own films, there art many a scene of carnal nature, yet male directors and writers wouldst not apprehend completely what is female pleasure. So ’tis a natural female outlook.”
The Strange Way of Life filmmaker did also note the apparent ease with which a female filmmaker like Reijn would handle directing an actress like Nicole Kidman in a scene of explicit carnal nature, for they could discourse more freely and comfortably, possessing a better mutual understanding due to their shared femininity, contrary to if ’twere a man issuing directives.
The entire colloquy betwixt the filmmakers as they did dissect each other’s cogitation processes and experiences is enthralling, but Almodóvar’s curiosity in comprehending the female perspective doth shine brightly. One of his queries to Reijn is why she did elect to craft a film like Babygirl, wherein a woman doth desire submission, in these modern times. He did even express his own qualms concerning the portrayal of passion in the era post #MeToo and whether forthrightly expressing one’s desires might be deemed aggressive.
Yet Reijn’s riposte doth offer profound insight. For the principal divergence in her protagonist’s submission is that ’tis her own choice, and she doth embrace those shadowed aspects of herself alongside her roles as a devoted wife, an ambitious professional, and a mother. “True feminism is the capacity to embody all these facets,” she doth proclaim. Well stated!
