#the beguiled
Clint Eastwood and Elizabeth Hartman on set of The Beguiled, 1971 [X]
The Virgin Suicides (1999) // Marie Antoinette (2006) // The Beguiled (2017), dir. Sofia Coppola
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pics from pinterest <3
the beguiled. watching two kirsten dunst movies back to back was a total coincidence here–i was just looking for another movie to watch with @actuallyrorygilmore during her stay and we both had this one on our lists.
my basic review of this movie is…i genuinely have no idea why this movie exists. just, why.
my reason for watching it was simple, great cast. i’ve loved colin farrell and nicole kidman since i was a teenager, kirsten dunst and elle fanning are always talented…and while it seemed spooky, i didn’t mind that in theory.
but then we watched! and it actually wasn’t spooky. it was mostly slow. very tense at times, and occasionally gross, when a seemingly underage elle fanning tries to seduce colin farrell. but not scary.
it’s set during the civil war, with a wounded colin farrell seeking refuge in a house full of women who support the side he fought against. their fear slides into wariness towards him which melts into warmth and friendship–even a calculating sort of love for kirsten dunst, and flirtation with nicole kidman and elle fanning.
but all of that explodes very quickly after a sex scene leads to an injury which leads to an amputation which turns him into a trapped madman, and the end of the movie leaves the women of the house exactly where they started but with him dead.
so again, i really don’t know what the point of the story was, the actual plot. was this a case of ‘we have book rights and better use them’? did so many great people sign on that it didn’t matter if the story was good or not? what was it trying to say? all i know is that we were both traumatized watching this and at the same time felt like we’d wasted hours of our lives and wanted them back.
it’s sad given the cast but i really can’t say i liked anything about this, besides realizing afterwards that i had just watched colin farrell in a truly unpleasant civil war movie–and i also MET colin farrell in a civil war movie, but one in which he played jesse james as a sort of 2000s style historical heartthrob. i’ve loved him ever since american outlaws, so realizing he’d come full circle in my fangirl life, in a horrific sort of way…i found that funny, at least.
1.Nowhere(1997, Gregg Araki)
2.I Am Cuba (1964, Mikhail Kalatozov)
3.Uncut Gems (2019, Josh & Benny Safdie)
4.The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982, Peter Greenaway)
5.The Beguiled (1971, Don Siegel)
6.Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974, Alain Robbe-Grillet)
7.A Cock and Bull Story (2005, Michael Winterbottom)
8.Dead Man (1995, Jim Jarmusch)
9.Funny Girl (1968, William Wyler)
10.Nosferatu(1922, F. W. Murnau)
