Kidman, Bacall take Birth to Normandy

DEAUVILLE, France, Sept 9 (AFP) – Film diva Nicole Kidman, 24 hours after dazzling the Venice film festival even if her new movie did not, was set for another star turn at yet another celebration of cinema on Thursday, this time in the French seaside resort of Deauville.  

Kidman’s latest oeuvre, Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth”, is in competition at Deauville’s annual festival of American cinema. Accompanying Kidman will be screen legend Lauren Bacall, who plays her mother in the film.  

In “Birth”, Kidman’s character, Anna, decides to remarry ten years after the death of her beloved husband. But her world is turned upside down when a ten-year-old boy claiming to be her dead husband’s reincarnation walks into her life.  

The film got mixed reviews – in the form of boos and applause – when presented in Venice, but Kidman seems to have held audiences enthralled.  

Also showing at the northern resort on Thursday was Joshua Marston’s “Maria Full of Grace,” a much-praised portrayal of a young woman who elects to transport illegal drugs to New York in order to escape an impoverished, dead-end existence in Colombia.  

Closing out the day’s screenings was “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” the much-anticipated second feature film by Michel Gondry starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.