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ARTS & CULTURE
KANSAN.COM
Sofia Coppola creates haunting, erotic thriller 'The Beguiled'
Nicole Kidman in a scene from "The Beguiled."
Associated Press
► COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman
Sofia Coppola is back. After a four-year hiatus (not including "A Very Murray Christmas") the director, screenwriter and heir to the Coppola throne returns with "The Beguiled," a Southern Gothic meditation on sexual repression and deprivation.
Isolation is the signature emotion of Coppola's characters - she's built her career on it. And as Coppola's grown up, we've seen the characters in her films put in increasingly adult situations.
Now "The Beguiled," a remake of a 1971 film of the same name, deals with that emotion in a more sinister way. Union soldier Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell) is on
death's door when he finds 12-year-old Amy (Oona Laurence), a student of Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies. She takes John home, where he's fawned over by the roughly half-a-dozen women and girls of the school.
It's hardest for Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) who's obviously infatuated with the corporal from the start. Although
The residents of the boarding school haven't seen a man in years. It's the middle of the Civil War, and any sweethearts, husbands or brothers they might have had are long gone — and possibly dead. Essentially, the girls are all dressed up with nowhere to go. They were raised in a culture of high necks, lace and pastels that taught young women that every action should be done with men in mind.
Greek revival architecture against a bleak backdrop of dim light and grayish vegetation. The looming wrought iron fence around the house is a barrier between the women and the hell of the outside world.
Every scene toes the line between menacing and ethereal. Coppola lets the scenery
still young, she's probably an old maid by the standards of the bellum South. Martha (Nicole Kidman) is even older, and her age allows her to show more restraint. Alicia (Elle Fanning) is a teenager, and shamelessly flirts with the corporal - who returns her advances.
and the subject matter speak for themselves. The camera is more a voyeur than a participant in the sexual tension between the characters, and it drifts through the rooms of the house like a ghost.
"The Beguiled" has flaws. For one, Hallie, the slave character played in the original film by Mae Mercer, has been
Underneath the women's lovely, doll-like appearances is something sinister. When their soldier's presence becomes more threatening they find that years of sexual deprivation are good fuel for survival.
All of Coppola's films can fall back on two redeeming qualities: production design, and Coppola's thoughtful, steady directing. "The Beguiled" has both. The dreamy production design frames the boarding school's stunning
omitted from the remake altogether. Coppola explained her decision by saying that the film was more about gender than race, and that it would be disrespectful to include the character when the story doesn't deal with slavery as a political issue. That might not be totally unfair, but it does seem evasive - especially since no one in the Coppola family seems to go out of their way to include people of color in their films.
But, "The Beguiled" is still a welcome project from a director whose work we've been lucky enough to see mature over the last two decades. Coppola is still relatively young, and she's still growing as an artist and a human. Maybe with her next project she'll listen to criticism and grow up even more.