C7swIv-U8AA4Oqx.jpg' alt='A Tree Of Palme Movie Photo Frame' title='A Tree Of Palme Movie Photo Frame' />A Tree Of Palme Movie Photo BoothSofia Coppola, Nicole Kidman Deliver a Southern Gothic Hoot. Theres a moment about an hour into Sofia Coppolas The Beguiled when you just know that things are about to get lurid. Until then, her version of the book that also produced a 1. Clint Eastwood has been relatively restrained more slow burn than hysterical, all mood and menace instead of melodrama. But then Colin Farrell, playing a wounded Union soldier whos been taken in by a girls seminary in Virginia during the waning years of the Civil War, beds one of the girls and incurs the wrath of a couple of others and gets pushed down the stairs, reopening the gory leg wound that put him there in the first place and wakes up to find that headmistress Miss Martha, played by Nicole Kidman, has kindly amputated his leg while he was out. Nobody told me it was a house of mad women he screams, and its obvious that just as surely as the trees are draped in Spanish moss and the cicadas are going into overdrive, were in for an overheated Southern Gothic maelstrom of a finale. Also Read Colin Farrell Held Hostage by Southern Belles in Sofia Coppolas Beguiled Remake VideoBut then Coppola, who if nothing else is impossible to pigeonhole, goes back to underplaying material that all that cries out for overplaying. Thats why The Beguiled, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday and will be released this summer by Focus Features, is such a richly satisfying piece of subtle reinvention. Sunday is the final day of Cannes, but for yours truly, the festival ends in a couple hours, with a flight from Nice to New York. Its been a great time a blur of. Easters End In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society. OP4K9oAU4/hqdefault.jpg' alt='A Tree Of Palme Movie Photo Maker' title='A Tree Of Palme Movie Photo Maker' />Its a hoot, to be sure, but it doesnt try too hard to be a hoot instead, its an austere and moody bit of Southern Gothic ish suspense, never trying to oversell pulpy material that all but begs to be oversold and amped up. This is Coppolas fourth film at Cannes, after The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette and The Bling Ring, and its the first remake if you want to call it that of her career. The Don Siegel original featured Eastwood as the soldier and Geraldine Page as the head of the school but Siegel, whose other films included Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Dirty Harry, embraced the more lurid aspects of a story that puts a swarthy man in a house full of Southern belles dressed in varying shades of white. READ MORESee Nicole Kidmans latest POWER MOVE. Coppola retains some of that, particularly to deliver jolts of dark humor she subtly riffs on Gothic melodrama without fully surrendering to it. Miss Martha gives Corporal John Mc. Burney a sponge bath, and has to stop herself and take a deep breath when she gets close to his crotch a few minutes later, a mere conversation between Mc. Burney and Kirsten Dunsts Miss Edwina leaves her clutching the door frame and breathing hard. But this version of the story has a languid pacing that fits the setting of a stately mansion usually sunk into darkness, light struggling to come through the heavy drapes. Its best scenes arent Mc. Burneys attempts to play the girls against each other, which are actually played down from the Eastwood version, but the womens own subtle gamesmanship. Theres a priceless dinner in which Miss Jane says she baked the apple pie Miss Edwina points out it was from her recipe, but Miss Amy adds that she picked the apples Kidman knows how to find all the sweaty splendor in overheated material remember, she once came to Cannes with Lee Daniels ludicrous potboiler The Paperboy but she has quiet fun with this one, including the fabulous line, Edwina Bring me the anatomy book Believe me, context is everything. Also Read Killing of a Sacred Deer Cannes Review Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell Get Dark and Freaky. Farrell, who like Kidman is also in the Cannes title The Killing of a Sacred Deer, has the charm and menace required for the role, but hes less of a force than Eastwood was in the early version. And hes robbed of some of Clints more menacing moments, like the opening scene where Eastwoods character told 1. Amy she was old enough for kissing. Watch Detective Conan: Full Score Of Fear Hd. This time, the focus is more on the jockeying for position between the students and teachers, with Dunst a touching standout as the woman who falls hardest for Mc. Burneys con. The Cannes press audience at Wednesday mornings screening went along with all of it and applauded warmly when it ended. Sure, maybe The Beguiled is more of a guilty pleasure than a Palme dOr contender, but you dont have to feel much guilt about falling under its spell. Related stories from The.