THE BEGUILED
US, 2017, 93 minutes, Colour.
Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Oona Lawrence, Angourie Rice, Addison Riecke, Emma Howard.
Directed by Sofia Coppola.
The question the audience might keep asking during this film is who exactly is being beguiled – and by whom? And the question remains at the end of the film as the camera and the audience contemplate teachers and students behind the iron gate at this school for young ladies.
The setting is Virginia, 1864, the Civil War moving towards its end. At the school, definitely for the education of young ladies, in French, needlework, good manners with a touch of religious fervour (they are all presented as Catholics), life goes on with a remnant of students for whom returning home to their towns and families would be too dangerous. There are routines, lessons, working in the garden, music, meals, night prayer.
The school is run by Miss Martha Farnsworth, Nicole Kidman elegant and good-mannered. She is assisted by Edwina, Kirsten Dunst, who has something of a mysterious background. There are five students left, the oldest being Alicia, played with some precocious but ignorant flirtation by Elle Fanning. The other girls are younger (and Jane is played by Australian, Angourie Rice).
For many, the basic plot will be familiar from the 1971 film of the same name, directed by Don Siegel, with Clint Eastwood as the wounded Northern soldier, Geraldine Paige as Ms Farnsworth and Elizabeth Hartman as Edwina.
This time the soldier is played by Colin Farrell, Irish accent and all, explaining his migration, his enlistment, his running away, his leg being severely wounded – and he is found in the woods by the young Amy who has been collecting mushrooms. She brings the soldier to the school and Ms Farnsworth and the community have to decide whether to report the soldier to the Confederate authorities or not. His leg is tended, his wound stitched in close-up, he is washed – and eventually recovers.
And, of course, this is where the beguiling begins. In many ways John Mc Burney is beguiled by the women and the girls. And, each according to her age and awareness in such cloistered atmosphere, subconscious urging is rising to consciousness, is beguiled in her own way.
For a while, this seems to be an idyllic situation, John Mc Burney working in the garden to beautify the mansion and the grounds – which look very much like an old-style and plantation, filmed in glowing light, moss hanging from the trees – and, with all the women dressed in white, presented often in tableau framing, many audiences may well remember Picnic at Hanging Rock.
But, idylls do not last and the attraction and the tensions boil over with some tragic consequences.
The film is being written and directed by Sofia Coppola, whose films include The Virgin Suicides about a group of sisters who cannot face growing up, a modern kind of version of Marie Antoinette (both of these with Kirsten Dunst), as well as the famous Lost in Translation, the Hollywood story, Somewhere, and a film about wealthy and irresponsible young people, The Bling Ring. She has brought her own distinctive, often contemplative style, as well as exploring issues of relationships between men and women, and, especially, sexual beguilment.
1. The title? How many of the characters are beguiled? By whom? How?
2. The setting, Virginia, 1864, the background of the Civil War, the echoes of war, the explosions and sounds, seeing the smoke? Preserving the food and the soldiers raiding the food? Soldiers passing the building? The visit of the soldiers? The dead and wounded? The stances of each side?
3. The importance of the visuals, the exterior of the mansion, the plantation look, the grounds, the trees and the moss, the woods and the mushrooms? The solid gates? The interiors of the mansion? The range of rooms and the decor? The costumes of the women? The uniforms? The musical score and atmosphere?
4. The situation, the school, the war, the girls staying because of the dangers at home? Only five students? The range of ages? The school, education, very proper, Catholic and the signs of the cross, prayers and grace, the petitionary prayers? The teaching of French, sewing, working in the gardens? The girls becoming ladies? The isolated atmosphere, confined by the war – the touch of claustrophobia and its effect?
5. Martha, the role, the importance of discipline, respect? The presence of Edwina as the associate teacher? The mystery about her life? Teaching French, relationship with the girls? The youngest girls, eager, the mushrooms, the work in the garden, playing the violin and piano? Alicia, older, puberty and self-consciousness? The range of routines, obedience, their rooms?
6. Amy finding Mc Burney, from the Union, his Irish background and explanation, the fact that he was baptised? His severe leg wound? Amy bringing him in? The range of reactions, some wanting to denounce him, against the North? The decision not to give him up? Martha going to the gate for the passing soldiers, her asking for bullets for her gun? The humanitarian motives? The personal desires, the undercurrent of sexuality? Martha tending the wound, the detail of the sewing, detail of the washing, her care, the effect on her? The attraction? Her attempting to deny the attraction? The drink, talking, sharing stories? The night – and her almost succumbing?
7. Mc Burney in himself, Irish, from the north, enlisting, his motivations, courteous with the women, his suffering, his patience, the recovery, the clothing provided, working in the garden? With each of the women and the girls, different? Listening to the music, joining in the prayer, the meals? The various types of flirting – and his being beguiled? His beguiling the others?
8. Edwina, her age, her background, prim? Her visiting Mc Burney, his flattering her, her protests?
9. Alicia, against him, the flirting, her manner, the night with him and Edwina discovering them?
10. Edwina, her reaction, the confusion, his falling down the stairs, the opening up of his wound? Martha, the decision to amputate, the chloroform, the surgery? His working, his outburst and anger about his leg?
11. Edwina, her age, susceptibility, her beauty, presence, talking? Her hopes? With the others? Martha, the formal dinner, the comment about her shoulders and the shawl? The tension, his antagonism towards the women, her going to him, the sexual encounter? The coming to the meal – and the girls reminding her that she did not like mushrooms and her not eating them?
12. Alicia, her age, flirting, against Mc Burney, preparing herself, her lazy work in the garden, the sexual encounter?
13. Jane, her age, against the men of the North, talking with Mc Burney, playing the music, his asking her for freedom?
14. The younger girls, Amy, Emily, Marie? Amy finding the soldier, the link with him, the visits?
15. The dilemma, the women meeting, Edwina not present? Marie and the idea, Amy picking the mushrooms, their being cooked, the formal dinner, Edwina present, Mc Burney
and his making an apology, his liking the mushrooms, eating, complementing them, his immediate death?
16. The final tableau of Martha, Edwina and the girls, behind the formal gate? And the audience contemplating them, their life, the manner, and what they had done?
