Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled is making its world premiere as competition entry at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and the first press screening for the film has taken place. And as early reactions are starting to pour out, the response – at least thus far – appears all over the map. Some critics in attendance have already proclaimed the period western which stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst (who earned several early MVP honors), Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell a “masterpiece” while others have expressed disappointment.
While may just be par for the course when dealing with the idiosyncratic Coppola, who won an Oscar for penning the script to her Lost in Translation (2003), still perhaps the filmmaker’s most accessible film. Between The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, Somewhere and The Bling Ring, Coppola has developed a résumé that has both entranced and distanced cinephiles. Her latest “is a thriller from acclaimed writer/director Sofia Coppola. The story unfolds during the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school. Its sheltered young women take in an injured enemy soldier. As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events.”
The film finds its roots in the novel by Thomas Cullinan and was previously adapted to the screen by Don Siegel in the 1971 version which starred Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Hartman.
Some early quick takes below.
The film will hit theaters this summer, courtesy of Focus Features. Ahead of its June 23rd release date, The Beguiled will play the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival as a part of a 15th Anniversary celebration for Focus Features. Coppola is expected to be on hand for a Q&A accompanying the screening. Other films playing the festival in celebrations of Focus’ anniversary will include Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right and Coppola’s very own Lost in Translation.
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