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Story by: Jack Foley
NICOLE Kidman’s latest film - a controversial drama about
a widower who falls in love with a boy after believing her dead
husband has been reincarnated in him - has been booed by critics
at Venice.
Birth, which played in competition at the showpiece event, is
directed by Jonathan Glazer, who also made Sexy Beast, and was
seen as a front-runner for the award.
But Kidman was forced to defend the film, following the screening,
insisting that she had ‘wanted to make a film where you
understand love’.
She continued: "I read the script and it immediately affected
me. There was something in this woman I felt I understood and
knew.
"I responded to this woman who was in mourning. It wasn't
that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy."
Among the controversial scenes in the movie, however, are one
in which Kidman kisses the boy (played by 11-year-old actor Cameron
Bright) on the lips, and another in which they are seen to share
a bath. The film's backers, New Line, have been quick to point
out, however, that neither actor was naked when the scene was
filmed.
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But while the film was booed in certain
quarters, some critics responded to its themes, with the Guardian's
Geoffrey Macnab applauding it as ‘a sleek, intelligent drama
which might best be characterised as Vertigo with a kindergarten
twist’.
Depending on which article you read, however, Kidman either became
frustrated or dealt with the questions competently at the subsequent
press conference.
But her co-star, Lauren Bacall, grabbed most of the headlines
when she refused to acknowledge Kidman as a screen legend.
"She's not a legend," Bacall interrupted one interviewer,
when she referred to Kidman as such. "She's a beginner. What
is this legend? She can't be a legend at whatever age she is.
She can't be a legend, you have to be older."
And Bacall should know. At the age of 79, she has enjoyed a long
and distinguished career, with films such as The Big Sleep and
Key Largo, not to mention being the widow of Humphrey Bogart.
Not that there is any antagonism between Kidman and Bacall, who
have previously worked together on Dogville.
Bacall insisted that she and Kidman enjoyed a ‘fabulous
relationship on screen and off’, while Kidman referred to
Bacall, affectionately, as her ‘New York Mom’, giving
advice on her private life and leaving delightfully grumpy messages
for her.
Birth is due to open in UK cinemas in October.
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