VENICE LIDO, Italy – “Babygirl,” Nicole Kidman’s sexually explicit study of a powerful CEO’s dangerous affair with her intern, world premiered in competition Friday night at the Venice International Film Festival and quickly generated “Can you believe it!” buzz.

What distinguishes “Babygirl” and its sado-masochistic affair is that it unfolds as liberating with no terrible need for its heroine to be punished for her transgressions.

That’s because, a buoyant Kidman emphasized at the festival press conference, “This film is obviously, yes, it’s about sex. It’s about desire. It’s about your inner thoughts. It’s about secrets. It’s about marriage. It’s about truth, power, consent.

“What this is, is one woman’s story and, I hope, a very liberating story. It’s told by a woman through her gaze, which mirrors the script,” she said of Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn who sat next to her.

“She wrote it. She directs it — and that to me is what made it so unique. Suddenly, I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material and indeed be able to share those things.”

“I’m very delighted to be able to make a film about female desire,” Reijn said. “But it’s also a film about a woman in an existential crisis. And it has many layers.

“We’re all human beings. We all have beasts living inside ourselves and for women not to explore that behavior?

“I was raised by my parents, not with good or evil. I think we are both. I don’t want any of my characters to be punished, I just want them to be.

“I would like to put the film in context a little bit,” she continued. “I saw it like it brought me back to those 90s films,” like ‘Fatal Attraction’ and ‘Basic Instinct’ where women were always punished for their transgressions.

Reijn worked with and was influenced by Dutch hitmaker Paul Verhoeven (“Showgirls”). “Hey, I was here actually at this famous film festival with (Paul’s) ‘Black Book’ movie in 2006, a big feminist work. And I wanted to do something in that space. But like Nicole said, from a female gaze.

“That doesn’t mean that this film is not also about masculinity, femininity, power, control and all those different things.

“At the core of it for me, it is about the question: Can I love myself in all my different layers? I hope it will function as a tribute to self-worth and liberation.”

“I want to examine human beings and what that means in all facets of that,” Kidman concluded. “Right now we’re nervous and really proud to be invited to a festival like this.”

“Babygirl” opens Dec. 25 in theaters only.