Taking place in the South during the Civil War, a blue coat soldier, Corporal McBurney, is injured and is taken in by a girls’ school. They take care of his wound and clean him up. A lot of the girls of the house are quite taken with their new guest, but Miss Martha, the person in charge doesn’t want him to stay for very long. Once he is all better she wants him to leave. McBurney’s presence brings up rivalries with most of the girls over their attraction to him.
Blaine: I’ve seen the original 1971 version of “The Beguiled” starring Clint Eastwood and I’m already familiar with how the story goes. I was very interested in seeing how this version would turn out. It looked like something completely different for writer, director Sofia Coppola compared to everything else she has done in the past. Sofia Coppola’s production designer Anne Ross told her that she should watch “The Beguiled” and make her own version of it. Sofia’s not really big on making remakes, but “The Beguiled” she found to be very interesting taking place during the Civil War and this girls’ school in the South taking in a soldier. She read the book and wanted to do a version that would show the female characters' point of view. As Sofia read the book she could imagine how she would tell the story and what it was like for these women at that time. Sofia’s version is more dark, serious, quiet and more visual with all these cinematography shots.
While Sofia was working on the script she had Kristen Dunst and Elle Fanning in mind to be apart of the cast sense she has worked with them before. She thought Kristen could play the school teacher and Elle could play the young student who seduces the injured soldier.
Sofia had admired Nicole Kidman’s work and had her in mind as the headmistress Miss Martha. She met with her in London and discussed the project over dinner. Nicole was open minded on being apart of it before reading the script and said yes. Colin Farrell wasn’t in favor of being apart of another remake, but “The Beguiled” was different after Sofia described how she would make it and he was interested in doing the project after that. Colin was familiar with the 1971 feature after seeing it a few years back and thought Clint Eastwood was extraordinary in it. For his take on the character, Corporal McBurney, Colin was allowed to maintain his Irish accent because the character in the book is an Irish soldier. Sofia wanted Colin because he is charming and she knew he would find a way to connect with each female character differently. Colin described Sofia’s vision of “The Beguiled” as something original.
Sofia made it clear to Angourie Rice that her character Jane is the emotional one of the group, takes every situation very seriously and breaks down quickly in extreme situations because she can not handle it. The other girls of the group like to flirt with McBurney, but Jane is the only one who is afraid of him. Before shooting began, the cast got together in New Orleans to rehearse scenes. They also did their research of how people lived in that time and learned some stuff from a Civil War reenactor as well.
For the look of the film Sofia and her cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd looked through a lot of paintings and photographs from that time and wanted to make this soft kind of gauzy feminine look. They also did a lot of camera tests of the candle lighting. There’s a lot of images of natural environments, close up shots and a lot of the shots at night would just be natural light shots by candlelight, which is darker than if they lit it. Shooting took place in a real plantation mansion of that time in Louisiana.
Kristen Dunst's character Edwina is someone who is not happy living in that house because she has been there for so long that it's become a prison to her. Kristen shows that Edwina doesn’t show she is a desperate woman compared to the late Elizabeth Hartman’s take on the character. Kristen’s is more serious on the outside.
This version of “The Beguiled" doesn’t show or mention the regretful sexual relationship Miss Martha had with her deceased brother when he lived in the house. She does however mention there was a man in her life when she has a conversation with McBurney. Miss Martha doesn’t want to get too involved with McBurney although at one point she did look like she wanted to kiss when she escorted him to his room.
My friend James described Colin Farrell’s take on Corporal McBurney as more likable compared to Clint Eastwood’s where he is an asshole. He’s likable at first, but after he sees his left leg has been cut off he’s not so nice anymore. He’s not as threatening or mean as Clint Eastwood’s, but he is dangerous. In this version McBurney also becomes very useful around the property by cutting branches and pulling dead weeds.
Sofia and her crew had to shoot as many takes with the youngest girls as they could because then they had to go to school. Some of the takes they did of the dining room scene would just be close up shots of Nicole Kidman, Kristen Dunst and Elle Fanning because the other girls weren’t around. Nicole had to go to the CMT Awards and Elle would take over and play Miss Martha. Elle would feed lines to Kristen for one of her scenes and the camera would only focus on Kristen.
The story is the same, but with a few changes that Sofia Coppola made. Like for example Edwina goes to McBurney and puts a table in front of the door so that no one can get in and I was expecting her to say "I love you” just like in the original, but she didn’t. Instead she kisses him and they just do it on the floor. There’s also the ending where the girls carry McBurney’s dead body, leave it outside the gate, put a blue rag around it and sit on the front porch to await for the Confederacy to take the body away instead of just burying his body out in the woods like the original.
My rating on “The Beguiled” is five out of five stars.
Sofia Coppola, Nicole Kidman, Kristen Dunst, Elle Fanning, Angourie Rice, Oona Laurence, Addison Riecke and Emma Howard
Cannes Premiere
Blaine: Here’s some info I know about the original 1971 version staring Clint Eastwood. Director Don Siegel had directed Clint in two previous movies “Coogan’s Bluff” and “Two Mules for Sister Sarah”, but when it came to “The Beguiled” it was an unexpected movie to have one of Hollywood’s favorite action heroes to be apart of. And it was shocking for audiences that Clint’s character dies at the end, but that’s how it was in the book. Universal Studios had wanted to change that into a happy ending, but Clint said it wouldn't have the statement against war if it was like that so it ended the way it originally did. Clint Eastwood had played some characters that can be jerks, but also have a sweet side to them as well. Corporal John McBurney is unlike any other character Clint has ever played. He’s the type who should be unlikable, but because he is played by Clint Eastwood that makes it tuff because everyone loves Clint. When I watch that movie I don’t know who’s side to support, the girls or John McBurney. They’re both somewhat evil one with John being a huge jerk to the girls and the girls killing John in the end. I do feel hate for the girls at the end because they killed him just about the time he was planning to leave their house. Beguiled means charm or enchant someone, sometimes in a deceptive way.
My rating on the original “Beguiled” is four and a half out of five stars.
