By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
Opening the summer film season with sizzle is Sofia Coppola’s female-driven retelling of Don Siegel’s 1971 erotic period-thriller “The Beguiled.”
Set during the height of the Civil War, the story takes place at Miss Farnsworth’s Seminary for Young Ladies––an all girls’ boarding school in rural Mississippi––where lonely women and girls painstakingly await the war’s end.
Starring former Palisadian Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning as the seminary’s leading women, and Colin Farrell as the wounded Union soldier who takes refuge in the home’s lusty quarters, “The Beguiled” is paperback pulp done up in Southern macabre.
Handsomely shot at the historic Madewood Plantation House in Louisiana, Coppola utilizes the site’s ancient moss trees and sprawling landscapes to visually manifest the cloistered repression of those dwelling inside.
And while the film has received some criticism for using its characters’ boredom too heavy-handedly, where the “Beguiled” receives its universal acclaim is in its demonstrable subtlety.
It’s the kind of moody film that brings out the best from its actors, with particular nods to Kidman.
Consuming the role of the school’s lacy Christian headmistress, Martha Farnsworth, Kidman breathes chilled air into this atmospheric exhibition of the feminine mystique.
“I don’t want to say intimidated, but [Kidman] was something new, and she’s such an experienced, talented actress,” Coppola told the LA Times. “I think she’s unique. It was like watching a virtuoso or an incredible athlete. We’d do a scene, and she’d have five different emotions going on at the same time.”
Already in its first week of limited release, “The Beguiled” opens in theaters nationwide June 30.
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