Sofia Coppola's latest is a period piece set during the American civil war in Virginia. While wandering through the forest scavenging for food, a young school girl comes across a Yankee soldier. Seeing that the man is severely wounded and thus no danger to her, she brings him back to the private girls school where only a handful of pupils, the headmistress, and one teacher, have settled down to wait out the war. The girls and women, having been left alone for so long without male attention, are quick to throw themselves in the path of such a devilishly handsome romantic man, while the man himself, John McBurney, is all too willing to seduce and be seduced in the hopes that he can wait out the war in this cushy harem of white cotton clad ladies.
Though she has an Oscar for writing I've always found Coppola to be at her best with her directing and that's very true of The Beguiled. You can tell she had a blast with the time period and the costumes because she luxuriates in the atmosphere. No shots are wasted and all are beautiful. The soundscape in the movie also plays an incredible role. There are a lot of things happening off screen (the war for one) but we hear it in the sound of the booming canons that disrupt the girls as they set about their work.
The film is also an ensemble piece, but while there isn't a weak member among the cast, Coppola favourite Kirsten Dunst stands out as a fragile and repressed teacher whose youth is quickly wilting away, and Nicole Kidman is hilarious as the commanding no-nonsense headmistress.
The trailers for this give away too much of the plot in my opinion. If possible it's best to see this blind and let Coppola's slow atmospheric's and dark humour take over.
A short sharp piece, well made and worth seeing.
Though she has an Oscar for writing I've always found Coppola to be at her best with her directing and that's very true of The Beguiled. You can tell she had a blast with the time period and the costumes because she luxuriates in the atmosphere. No shots are wasted and all are beautiful. The soundscape in the movie also plays an incredible role. There are a lot of things happening off screen (the war for one) but we hear it in the sound of the booming canons that disrupt the girls as they set about their work.
The film is also an ensemble piece, but while there isn't a weak member among the cast, Coppola favourite Kirsten Dunst stands out as a fragile and repressed teacher whose youth is quickly wilting away, and Nicole Kidman is hilarious as the commanding no-nonsense headmistress.
The trailers for this give away too much of the plot in my opinion. If possible it's best to see this blind and let Coppola's slow atmospheric's and dark humour take over.
A short sharp piece, well made and worth seeing.