THE BEGUILED Press Junket and Review, Buckle Up and Don't Forget to Breath.
Thank you Focus Features for inviting me to the pre-screening and press junket of The Beguiled. A powerful movie that’s seductive, filled with temptation, lust, and scandal. What was even more precious to me, which solidifies Sofia Coppola being absolutely brilliant, the movie had one curse word and the sinful sex scene consisted of a bare thigh. In our era, when curse words run free, sex is no longer taboo, this movie was a breath of fresh air.
Sophia stunning characters are dressed in the finest silk and lace dresses that occasionally bare a shoulder. Restrained by southern hospitality, virtue, and manners, the 7 women are the epitome of ladies. The world outside there grandiose gates, in shambles, the Civil War is in full force. The Beguiled had me longing to live in an era where rooms are illuminated with candelabras, learning to speak French, fine tuning my needle pointing skills, painting, warming up my vocal cords, mastering and conquering the piano. The magnificent mansion is surrounded by lush vegetation, with the sun piercing through the leaves, setting the mood of what’s to come, breathtaking. The films seductive and tantalizing suspense captures you in its ravishing moments, you’re trapped in temptation. The woman range in age but one thing is certain, when a man has entered their domain, things change, a person's true character comes alive, no longer is the well mannered, child-like playful mentality alive, an aura of sophistication arises, longing for hope, a force within them awakens and it will transform all of them. It will break one's spirit, another will rise to the occasion with her ingenious plan to plot the unthinkable (never underestimate anyone) but one thing is certain, when women come together, we can overcome anything, move mountains and fiercely protect one another. The Beguiled is fascinating,thought provoking and compelling, you'll never want it to end.
I’m eternally grateful for our women directors, gone are the days when a woman was considered dried up in her 40's. The opportunities that lie ahead of us, the talent that is ridiculously obvious, will no longer go unseen. As a woman and director, women see the world slightly differently, we bring a gentle touch, seduction to scenes that doesn't need a woman to be naked, what’s left to the imagination can be glorious. Woman directors appear to be reaching a critical mass in the independent film world, it’s evolving into the mainstream industry. Bringing women together professionally allows us to all rise up and support one another. I had the opportunity to ask the ladies to share their experience working with a woman director as you’ll see below, and what was even more so amusing, their answers evolved into being bad influences to the younger cast mates. Who says there's no fun in being a little bad?
BelAirMommie: I loved the movie, it shows that women, we can take our power back. And I was very appreciative because you portrayed, we don’t need a man to validate us. And what I want to know, since it was an all-woman cast (mostly), and you had a woman director, tell me about your experience working with all women.
KRISTEN: I have, I mean from a very young age, as you know, I did “Little Women” and I worked with Sophia when I was 16, so I’ve always had that opportunity to work with a woman director, it's like, bring it on. I’ve always wanted to work with other women. So I think it’s kind of how you navigate your own career and your taste level, what you want to surround yourself with, I think it comes through in your career. it wasn’t new to me and I just had the best time working with all the woman.
ELLE: Yeah, because of the last, I hadn’t really thought about it, but the last three movies that I’ve done have all been with women directors and it wasn’t something that I thought about. Sofia and then Melanie Laurent and then Reed Morano, all three women director and Reed was the DP on it, too. I didn’t know. But I didn’t necessarily choose it specifically because of that, it just turned out that way that they were making those stories and it was really exciting. I think for me, also, because it was in our film, there are so many women at all different ages, which is so great, and it was also kind of strange because I felt , "oh I’m normally the youngest person on set, always, so not being the youngest I was kind of like in the middle, I was like, this is weird. I’ve never been a middle child. I remember thinking, they’re going to do homework and I had graduated school.
ELLE: You remember they would they would all go to do school and I was like, “Oh I don’t have to go.
KIRSTEN: Yeah, I don’t have to go anymore.
SOFIA: One time we had to, we tried to get them out of it. Remember. We were like
ELLE: Yeah, we were like, “Oh you don’t have to...
SOFIA: Give him a little break.
ELLE: Yeah. The teacher got so mad at us. [LAUGH] WE were bad influences.
SOFIA: Yeah.
“I hope you like apple pie”