Lustful! The desires of the seven Snow Whites and the scumbag soldiers are entangled, and the forbidden room develops a big drama!

Viva 2022-03-27 09:01:13

Sofia Coppola,

the famous director of "The Godfather", the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, who was born with a halo, did not go well on the road of acting.


After switching to director, he rebounded from the bottom and became a blockbuster.

"Death of a Virgin" was filmed in 27 days, "Lost in Translation" was filmed in 29 days, and he proved his potential as a good director with an A-level blockbuster "The Peerless Queen".


This time, with "The Beguiled", she won the best director in the main competition unit of the 70th Cannes Film Festival.


For the delicate and vivid portrayal of the subtle changes in the characters' hearts, Sofia Coppola, who uses the conveying of small and sullen emotions as her housekeeping skills, is very suitable for this story with a prominent female theme.

"Under the Peony" has the 1971 version of Zhuyu in front. The story not only has erotic struggles, but also involves black slaves and war topics. Various pressures continue to put pressure on the characters. The final scene of the female group "castrating" the male is a ceremonial contrast. The domineering taste of feminism.


And this time, Sofia Coppola kept doing subtraction, abandoned a lot of places to explore, and focused the story construction on the word eroticism, and shot the so-called classical temperament.

Many people interpret this version of the story as a male perspective, the American version of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" just happened to completely misread or deliberately show off Chinese thinking.

Because Sofia Coppola's "Under the Peony" is a completely female perspective. They seem to be catering to and competing for men. In fact, they are showing and fighting each other's power and sexual charm. Men are just playthings under their skirts. , the spoils, after the use, can be thrown away, stripped of flesh, and even life.


The story of "Under the Peony" is set during the American Civil War, but it does not touch on the topic of slave abolition and war.

A northern soldier, McBurney, was wounded and fled to the southern countryside, where he was taken in by a girls' school, which had only seven women.


Headmistress, the leader of power, Miss Martha in everyone's mouth.


The female teacher, Miss Edwina, Martha's successor.

Among the students, the oldest and the most mature in physical and mental development, Alicia.

Most of the other female students stayed in the ignorant stage, and they were in their infancy with regard to the world and issues of men and women, and they could not completely separate admiration and love, emotion and lust.


A strange, attractive man was accidentally thrown into this closed, abstinent girls' school, and all sorts of ripples naturally soon followed.

Some students hate the arrival of this soldier under the thinking of the north-south battle, but driven by gender differences, curiosity, and jealousy, the story turns sharply, and almost all female characters have a love for the soldier McBurney. Heart.

From being irrelevant, from wishing to drive him away, to intrigue with each other, to compete for favor and flattery.


Especially on the night the soldier dined with all the women for the first time, every woman was well-dressed.

McBurney said the apple pie is delicious, women take credit for love one after another, I bake it, I set the seasoning, I teach the method, I pick the apples...

Lian has always been restrained The headmistress, Miss Martha, could not help but use her power and prestige to invite the soldiers to drink and chat alone.

"Under the Peony" abandons other topics in order to focus the camera on passion and desire, and to maximize the expression of a man's change in these women, from his body to his speech.


Although the film is only less than 100 minutes long, the setting and portrayal of several female characters in the film is delicate enough. From the lines, especially the facial expressions, we can clearly see the personalities and characterizations of several female characters. Attitude towards McBurney.

Miss Martha hardly cares what the man thinks of him, doesn't understand his comments and flirts, she is the authority here.

From the very beginning, she enjoyed his exclusive power. When wiping his body for him, her lust became enlightened. She kept on restraining herself, using cold water to regain her senses, and reciting scriptures to suppress her wild thoughts.


She repeatedly reminded McBurney on the surface that she would drive him away at any time, but when the Confederate soldiers came to the house and the female student wanted to drive him away, she subtly kept him many times.

She was waiting, and at the same time she was using her power to make her odds better.


And her successor Edwina, on the contrary, expressed her dissatisfaction with this place from the very beginning, she hoped to leave, and hoped to get true love.


So McBurney directly showed false feelings to her, hoping to gain her support.

Edwina forbears, loves pure, and does not ask for anything in return. She is the person who understands love best, but she forgets the clues and changes of human nature.


Another female student, Alicia, who is between mature and naive, relies on the appearance of an angel and her youth to secretly kiss the soldiers at night, constantly sending out blatant seduction signals.


But in fact, Alicia hoped to drive away McBurney at first. When he pulled her skirt to ask him to take him in, she threw off the opponent's hand. After the affair was revealed, she kept on Dismissing the relationship with McBurney, saying that the other party seduced and forcibly had a relationship with her.


Even after McBurney's death, she was indifferent.

So for her, there is only desire, no love.


Several other younger girls also participated in the fight, and one girl even suggested a way to poison her.

After a one-night dance, McBurney chose young Alicia.

Edwina accidentally bumped into the affair between the two, causing McBurney to fall seriously, and the headmistress Martha chose an amputation operation to stop the bleeding.

The story that followed, darker and darker, turned the fairy tale into a thriller.


A group of women designed, poisoned the soldiers.

Two dinner scenes, one side is desire, the other side is hate.

Those who saw it broke out in cold sweat.

In Sofia Coppola's "Under the Peony," the male is always passive, and his choices are clearly motivated and unwise.

Soldier McBurney is always insecure, and he wants to please every woman, even a young girl.


He saw Edwina, who had the weakest psychological defense, and immediately tried his best to please him, but he also coveted the beautiful and young Alicia.

After being tragically amputated, he told the truth angrily: "You just hate me for not choosing you"!

Fighting against the bright, the sword is hard to guard against, and he paid the price of his life for his weakness and weakness.


According to the evaluation standards of modern people, McBurney is not a scum, but a speculator at most, mediating among these women for his own survival.


Although there are Cass blessings such as Colin Farrell / Nicole Kidman / Kirsten Dunst / Elle Fanning / Oona Lawrence, there are

also very artistic and beautiful scenery, All of the classic and beautiful shots were shot with natural light, but the evaluation of "Under the Peony" is polarized.


The score on the Internet is also high. Some people say that Sophia's skills are shallow, and she still stays in the middle position.

But in the eyes of Fat Brother, it is precisely because of the extreme and one-sidedness of the film that it more movingly shows the human nature network of lust and power, and the group portraits under lust are beautifully and delicately portrayed.


Every expression of the actors is worth pondering, and the many changes in their relationship, the mutual restriction of religion and lust in it, also makes people ponder.

"Under the Peony" is the kind of film that leaves a lot of blanks in the text and needs to be filled by the audience. It tests the audience's viewing inertia and reading aesthetics. It can be watched in a popular way, and there is room for deep interpretation.


When it comes to love between men and women, who doesn't want to gossip about one side and see the instructive gender issues?

View more about The Beguiled reviews

Extended Reading
  • Dorthy 2021-12-29 08:01:46

    The characters who are in spring at every turn, the plot is split before and after, the Puritan woman was the worst black. But I feel funny inexplicably, the more I think about it, the more amusing. Aunt Coppola told a story about the seven fairy Dong Yongyu from a foreign country with a menopausal face. Emma, ​​I am going to be laughed to death~~~~~~~~~~~

  • Dimitri 2021-12-29 08:01:46

    Sofia Coppola knelt down and watched "July and Ansheng" ten times, but still couldn't understand the East Asians' understanding of Gong Dou Opera. The attitudes of women of different ages towards men, pure friendship, seduction at the level of sexual enlightenment, desperate to agree with each other, even if they are tempted, they make rational decisions at critical moments. I hate this kind of script that uses character oral broadcast to explain the background of the story.

The Beguiled quotes

  • John McBurney: I'd like to thank you for all of this, as well. It looks - like just about the finest meal I've ever seen.

    Martha Farnsworth: Well, bon appetit.

  • John McBurney: Miss Amy, you picked these mushrooms yourself?

    Amy: [Nods her head yes]

    John McBurney: Delicious.