The Beguiled (2017)
Country: US
Technical: col/1.66:1 93m
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning
Synopsis:
1864: A wounded Union soldier is taken in by two adult women and their five remaining charges at a finishing school for young ladies in Virginia. Initially, his presence is met with sternness and curiosity but gradually he learns to ingratiate himself even with the steely head governess. A delicate balance of power wavers for a moment before it is irrevocably tipped.
Review:
Coppola's remake of the Siegel original benefits from better casting (Eastwood never being quite right as the callow, blundering 'ordinary' soldier). The female parts are also, as might be expected by now (cf. The Virgin Suicides, The Bling Ring), studiously nurtured by actresses and director in concert. The plantation house location (at Madewood, LA.) is the other star of this movie, and indeed threatens to be a distraction, as Coppola strikes endless compositions featuring its pillars, balconies, and the shafts of sunlight streaming through the tree moss on the live oaks. The sense of a world all but sealed off from the outside allowing itself to be polluted is well caught, as the soldier, like a bad mushroom, causes those around him to be tainted and compromised. The final shot, with the ladies defiantly arrayed on the house steps, the shrouded body lying, as though rejected, outside the gates, is held long enough to make the point that feminine solidarity is a doughty fortress.
Country: US
Technical: col/1.66:1 93m
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning
Synopsis:
1864: A wounded Union soldier is taken in by two adult women and their five remaining charges at a finishing school for young ladies in Virginia. Initially, his presence is met with sternness and curiosity but gradually he learns to ingratiate himself even with the steely head governess. A delicate balance of power wavers for a moment before it is irrevocably tipped.
Review:
Coppola's remake of the Siegel original benefits from better casting (Eastwood never being quite right as the callow, blundering 'ordinary' soldier). The female parts are also, as might be expected by now (cf. The Virgin Suicides, The Bling Ring), studiously nurtured by actresses and director in concert. The plantation house location (at Madewood, LA.) is the other star of this movie, and indeed threatens to be a distraction, as Coppola strikes endless compositions featuring its pillars, balconies, and the shafts of sunlight streaming through the tree moss on the live oaks. The sense of a world all but sealed off from the outside allowing itself to be polluted is well caught, as the soldier, like a bad mushroom, causes those around him to be tainted and compromised. The final shot, with the ladies defiantly arrayed on the house steps, the shrouded body lying, as though rejected, outside the gates, is held long enough to make the point that feminine solidarity is a doughty fortress.
Country: US
Technical: col/1.66:1 93m
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning
Synopsis:
1864: A wounded Union soldier is taken in by two adult women and their five remaining charges at a finishing school for young ladies in Virginia. Initially, his presence is met with sternness and curiosity but gradually he learns to ingratiate himself even with the steely head governess. A delicate balance of power wavers for a moment before it is irrevocably tipped.
Review:
Coppola's remake of the Siegel original benefits from better casting (Eastwood never being quite right as the callow, blundering 'ordinary' soldier). The female parts are also, as might be expected by now (cf. The Virgin Suicides, The Bling Ring), studiously nurtured by actresses and director in concert. The plantation house location (at Madewood, LA.) is the other star of this movie, and indeed threatens to be a distraction, as Coppola strikes endless compositions featuring its pillars, balconies, and the shafts of sunlight streaming through the tree moss on the live oaks. The sense of a world all but sealed off from the outside allowing itself to be polluted is well caught, as the soldier, like a bad mushroom, causes those around him to be tainted and compromised. The final shot, with the ladies defiantly arrayed on the house steps, the shrouded body lying, as though rejected, outside the gates, is held long enough to make the point that feminine solidarity is a doughty fortress.