the beguiled (2017)

This film captures a very visceral and melancholic sense of place. In the opening scene we see a young girl walking along a dirt path surrounded by a spread of giant trees, branches curving in to create a canopy of dulled green over the path. After she rescues Colin Farrel, we get to see the magnificent house that these women live in, with its entrance lined with yellowed ionic columns, situated within a dense surrounding of overgrown trees with weeping branches of green on the brink of greying. These trees and their weeping branches are present in all shots of the house so that we never get a sense of the true shape or size of the house as it is always shrouded by nature gone wild, In this setting we get a creeping sense of the outside infiltrating the inside which we see again and again with Colin not only bringing the presence of maleness into the household, but also the presence of war, of division, of the threat of destabilizing the hierarchy and order of Miss Martha's school.

welcome to nicole kidman's crib

The fluctuation and transfer of power throughout the story was really interesting to follow. The moment the Corporal enters the house, Miss Martha sense that her power may be threatened, as most of the women and girls take a liking to (or at very least a fascination with) him. Despite him flirting with Edwina and Alicia, he is still weak due to his injured leg and Miss Martha finds comfort for herself in taking care of him, finding him attractive, and confessing that it can be exhausting to be a constant source of strength for her girls. Despite allowing herself to be vulnerable around him, she can at least rest assured while he is hurt that she and her girls are safe. After he recovers and begins to help around the garden, he begins to build power for himself by tending to the garden and flirting with the women in the house. Perhaps Miss Martha sense that and fears it, so she says he will be well enough to leave by the end of the week. Perhaps in response to this, the Corporal tells Edwina that he loves her, perhaps taking advantage of her loneliness and desire to leave this place, and that she should come away with him to Richmond. He then proceeds to make a ~power move~ by sleeping with Alicia instead of Edwina, and Edwina, in a fit of betrayal, pushes him down the stairs and breaks his leg. Miss Martha removes his leg, thus returning him to his crippled state and restoring her own power as the most influential of the house and locks him in his room to keep him away from the girls. At this point, with his leg cut off, symbolic of being castrated, the Corporal is consumed by understandable rage and uses physical violence to assert his dominance in the household. At this point, there is nothing the women can do but to kill him. The story seems to suggest that a man's death may be the only way keep women safe - a strong message of the strength of female community and the costs of maintaining it.

all eyes

At times I did feel like Colin Farrell was too assertive in his flirtations in his weakened state and I didn't find it believable, I guess meaning I didn't find myself attracted to him like the other women did, but like I guess people are unique and have their unique preferences and who am I to judge their poor taste idk?? Perhaps he was channeling a sort of practiced charm as a means of self protection, as if he knew exactly what words to use to win the women over.

Overall a beautiful and succinct portrayal of the destabilization of a community by an outsider, and a sort of ominous yet uplifting portrayal of women keeping each other safe despite, or in the context of, their own desires. I enjoyed that each of the women and girls was unique in their own standing and relationship with one another, like you could draw a web out of all the unique connection. Sofia Coppola does a great job of creating an atmosphere of quiet drama and sexual tension like she did in Lost in Translation, with the eye following the female gaze when filming Colin Farrell, meaning it had to be more subtle and repressive in its appreciation of him than it would a female body in order to capture the female characters' gaze and fascination. This provided a form of silent storytelling and character development that worked quiet well.

#bathtime

It's important to acknowledge that the film has been white-washed with the removal of a black slave character and a character of mixed ethnicity. As much as the aesthetic of beautiful blonde repressed white women appeals to me and white America, it's a real shame to see stories erase the presence of people of color, especially in an otherwise fantastic movie. I read that Coppola had her reasons (she said she didn't want young audiences to see a black character being portrayed in the way that she is in the book), which makes sense but is also an excuse not to do better. Being scared you're going to be racist is no excuse to sidestep someone's existence - it should be motivator to do more research and educate yourself.