The Beguiled (2017 film)

The Beguiled
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sofia Coppola
Produced by	Youree Henley Sofia Coppola
Screenplay by	Sofia Coppola
Based on	A Painted Devil by Thomas P. Cullinan
Starring	Colin Farrell Nicole Kidman Kirsten Dunst Elle Fanning
Music by	Phoenix
Cinematography	Philippe Le Sourd
Edited by	Sarah Flack
Production company	American Zoetrope FR Productions
Distributed by	Focus Features
Release date	May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24) (Cannes) June 23, 2017 (2017-06-23) (United States)
Running time	94 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million[2]
Box office	$23.8 million[3]

The Beguiled is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, based on the novel of the same name (originally published as A Painted Devil) by Thomas P. Cullinan. It stars Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. A film of the same name, also based on Cullinan's book, was released in 1971.

It premiered on May 24 at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in its main competition section,^[4][5] where Coppola won the Best Director award, becoming only the second woman to do so.^[6] The film was released theatrically on June 23, 2017, by Focus Features.

Plot[edit]

Martha Farnsworth is leading a girls school in Virginia during the American Civil War. By 1864, almost all of the students, teachers, and slaves have left. Only teacher Edwina Morrow and five students stay with Miss Farnsworth.

While out in the woods searching for mushrooms, Amy, one of the students, comes across John McBurney, a corporal in the Union Army who was wounded in the leg during battle and has since deserted the battlefield. Amy brings McBurney to the school where he falls unconscious, the women lock McBurney in one of the rooms while Miss Farnsworth tends to his wounds. All the women and girls in the school are immediately fascinated by the handsome man.

At the beginning, some residents want him to be delivered as a prisoner of war to the Confederate Army, but Miss Farnsworth decides that they will let his leg heal before they decide what they will do with him. When Confederate soldiers arrive at the school, Miss Farnsworth does not tell them that a Union soldier is on the premises.

While he is recovering, the women and girls fight for McBurney's attention and affection, giving him presents, wearing jewelry and preparing a luxurious dinner for him, he returns the affection, especially concentrating on Miss Morrow and Miss Farnsworth. When he is able to move again, he begins to help in the garden, it becomes clear that he fears returning to the war.

When Miss Farnsworth indicates that he is healthy enough and will have to leave the school in a few days, he tries to convince her to let him stay as a gardener, he furthermore tells Miss Morrow that he has fallen in love with her.

One night, he tells Miss Morrow to await him in her room, but when he does not appear and she hears strange noises, she investigates and finds him in bed with Alicia, a teenaged student. When McBurney tries to calm Miss Morrow down, she pushes him away, leading to him falling down the stairs and badly breaking his already injured leg. Miss Farnsworth decides that the only way to save him is to amputate his leg.

When McBurney awakes the next day and realizes he has lost his leg, he is devastated and furious, accusing the women, and especially Miss Farnsworth, of having punished him for the chaos he brought to the school, he is locked up in his room but threatens Alicia to get him the room key. He then breaks out, steals a gun, threatens the women, and then storms off. Miss Morrow follows him to his room where they have passionate sex.

Meanwhile Miss Farnsworth tries to find a solution. One of the students suggests killing McBurney by preparing a dinner for him using some poisonous mushrooms, to which she agrees, during the dinner, Miss Morrow, who is not informed of the plan, is deterred by the others at the last minute from putting the mushrooms on her own plate. McBurney does not get suspicious and eats the mushrooms. Seconds later he falls to the floor, dead.

While the others are sewing McBurney's body into a shroud, Miss Morrow looks on, devastated, the film ends with the women dragging his body to the road to let him be found by the next soldiers who come by.

Cast[edit]

• Colin Farrell as Corporal John McBurney
• Nicole Kidman as Miss Martha Farnsworth
• Kirsten Dunst as Edwina Morrow
• Elle Fanning as Alicia
• Angourie Rice as Jane
• Oona Laurence as Amy
• Emma Howard as Emily
• Addison Riecke as Marie

Production[edit]

Coppola had initially expressed an aversion to a remake, but after watching the 1971 version at the urging of production designer Anne Rose, she was left contemplating ways she could update the film.^[7] Specifically, she became interested in showing the story from the women's point of view, as opposed to the man's,^[8] the material came to Coppola at a time when she wanted to make a more optimistic film than 2013's The Bling Ring, stating that she wanted to "cleanse myself" from what she terms was "such a tacky, ugly world".^[7]

In March 2016, it was announced Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, and Kirsten Dunst had been cast in the film, while Colin Farrell entered talks that July.^[9][10][11] The music for the film is composed by the rock band Phoenix.^[12]

The Madewood Plantation House.

Filming[edit]

Principal photography began on October 31, 2016, and concluded on December 7, 2016.^[13][14]

The film was shot at the Madewood Plantation House, near Napoleonville, Louisiana, for exterior shots,^[15] while the interiors were filmed inside actress Jennifer Coolidge's home in New Orleans.^[16]

Release[edit]

The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival; Coppola won the Best Director Award, making her the second woman to ever win in that category, 56 years after the first female director won.^[17][1] The film began a limited release on June 23, 2017, before expanding to a wide release on June 30, 2017.^[18]

Box office[edit]

The Beguiled grossed $10.6 million in the United States and Canada and $13.2 million in other territories for a total of $23.8 million.^[3]

In the film's limited opening weekend, it made $240,545 from four theaters (a per-theater gross of $60,136), finishing 20th at the box office;^[19] in its wide opening, it made $3.2 million from 674 theaters (an average of $4,694), finishing 8th at the box office.^[20]

Critical reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 229 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Beguiled adds just enough extra depth to its source material to set itself apart, and director Sofia Coppola's restrained touch is enlivened by strong performances from the cast."^[21] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[22]

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film an "A−", saying, "Coppola's film is told with surgical precision and savage grace."^[23] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter stated: "Other than to place slightly more emphasis on the female empowerment angle...it's hard to detect a strong raison d'etre behind Sofia Coppola's slow-to-develop melodrama."^[24]

Allegations of whitewashing[edit]

The 1966 novel had a black female slave as a supporting character, whom director Sofia Coppola removed from the film, and for a biracial character from the novel, she cast white actress Kirsten Dunst. The Guardian said Coppola was criticized for engaging in whitewashing, to which the director said she made the changes so as "not [to] brush over such an important topic in a light way," and that "[y]oung girls watch my films and this was not the depiction of an African American character I would want to show them."^[25]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• The Beguiled on IMDb
• The Beguiled at Box Office Mojo
• The Beguiled at Metacritic
• The Beguiled at Rotten Tomatoes