Review: The Beguiled Strengthen Coppola’s Reign in Hollywood

Review: The Beguiled Strengthen Coppola’s Reign in Hollywood

Sofia Coppola was born into a Hollywood royalty since her father directed a highly successful franchise of “The Godfather”. It became a blessing and a burden since many people expected her to be at the same level with his father. She answered the difficult speculation with an award winning movie starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, “Lost In Translation” in early 2000’s. Beforehand she has released notable film like “Virgin Suicides”, and in 2017 she came back with another ambitious project called “The Beguiled”. It is not an original screenplay, but adapted from a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan which took American civil war as the backstory. It tells about a corporal named John McBurney (Colin Farrell) who got injured during a battle on Civil War. He was stranded in a forest and later found by a pupil at a private all-female institution. John unfortunately was on the opposite site of the war, but without thinking about his stance on war, the women at the institution helped him to recover. Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman), the headmistress of the school took care of John along with her pupils. There are Edwina (Kirsten Dunst), Carol (Elle Fanning), Amy (Oona Laurence), Jane (Angourie Rice), Marie (Addison Riecke) and Emily (Emma Howard).

They acted like the never interacted or seen a man before, so John’s stay at the school became an instant attraction to them. All the girls persuaded him to stay although he has recovered and pretty much could stand on his own. Miss Martha was against this notion and persisted that John should leave once he could travel back to his barrack. We could see suspicion rising from both sides, with eerier vibe building in the background. Sofia Coppola created an intense dark in each of the pulsing moment in this movie. She used the ratio 1.66 : 1 instead of 16:9 to shoot “The Beguiled”. It enhances the claustrophobic atmosphere of the film, and the audience was taken into a thriller and suspenseful mood as the story goes. She has won Best Director at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for this feature and became the second woman who was awarded with the category. The first time in 50 years that a  female filmmaker succeeded in winning the prize. She stays true to her movement in putting women in Hollywood as the lead roles. However, protest arose when Coppola was suspected to eliminate certain roles which has people of color (POC) in it. She denied the allegation by saying that her adaptation was based on the original novel instead of its first adaptation in the 70’s. Would you still watch “The Beguiled”?