With the exception of her contributions to “A Very Murray Christmas” on Netflix, we’ve only been treated to three Sofia Coppola movies since her Academy Award-nominated “Lost In Translation.” That’s just not enough Coppola in our lives. For comparison’s sake, Joe Swanberg released six movies in 2011 alone; this isn’t a knock on Swanberg so much as it is an acknowledgement that whatever Hollywood executives are doing that prevents Coppola from making six movies a year, they need to fix it yesterday.
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At least we have “The Beguiled.” In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Coppola admitted being introduced to Don Siegel‘s 1971 adaptation of Thomas P. Cullinan‘s novel and becoming fascinated with the story. Despite the film’s period setting, the power balance at the film’s core was something that lingered in Coppola’s mind. As she notes:
I just thought the premise was so interesting, because the story of power between men and women was such an interesting, loaded topic, and this premise really heightened it with this setting during the Civil War. The women were raised to be these perfect feminine creatures there for men, and then all the men disappear.
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Coppola also shared her thoughts on working with arguably her most robust group of actors today, including Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Colin Farrell, and Nicole Kidman. The latter played an important part in the creative process for Coppola; as is her wont, the filmmaker wrote for one specific actor, building her version of Martha Farnsworth with Kidman’s presence in mind. Even she wasn’t ready for the results, however:
I don’t want to say intimidated, but she was something new, and she’s such an experienced, talented actress. I think she’s unique. It was like watching a virtuoso or an incredible athlete. We’d do a scene, and she’d have five different emotions going on at the same time.
With an incredible cast and fascinating source material, “The Beguiled” is one of our most highly anticipated movies of 2017. The film makes its world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival; it will also be distributed by Focus Features and released in theaters everywhere on June 23, 2017.
