iris lilies
7-8-17, 1:01pm
The Beguiled is a film by Sophia Coppola that takes place in the civil war south at a school for young women. it is about a deserter from the Northern Army who shows up at this school. He is injured.
The head of the school whose home houses this school for young ladies is a genteel southern belle played by Nicole Kidman. The group of abput seven women and girls subtly, and not so subtly, vie for the attention and grace of the handsome soldier. Drama ensues.
This post is in the politics forum because I want to discuss the absurd criticism it has received for lack of African Americans in the film. In the film, Nicole Kidman's character explains that with the simple sentence "all of our slaves ran away."
The story is about this white woman, her young charges and colleague, the balance of power between genders and repressed sexuality.
It is not about slavery and race. It is not a vehicle for civil rights promotion.
Yet, Coppola is getting grief for failure to include black actors. WTF? Why???!!!
A guy on my local film discussin board says "I lost interest in Beguiled after Coppola gave an asinine justification for why she didn't want to include black people in the antebellum South."
and another guy on that board, someone who we all respect, says "...But specifically, Coppola's comments are very oblivious to the current cultural climate. A white director making a movie set during the Civil War not including any black characters or any discussion of race is going to rile some people--especially when said movie is based on a previous film that had a fairly prominent black character. And yes, her obliviousness that any of this would be an issue comes off as quite privileged."
I feel as thpugh I am living in the land of Absurd. If Coppola wants to remake a film with her own interpretation, why in the world should she be expected to include exactly the same characters with exactly the same skin color? My head hurts.
Here is one article that discusses this film and lack of actors of color:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alannabennett/sofia-coppola-beguiled-power-dynamics?utm_term=.taM207VwK#.eoyaLNE2y
The head of the school whose home houses this school for young ladies is a genteel southern belle played by Nicole Kidman. The group of abput seven women and girls subtly, and not so subtly, vie for the attention and grace of the handsome soldier. Drama ensues.
This post is in the politics forum because I want to discuss the absurd criticism it has received for lack of African Americans in the film. In the film, Nicole Kidman's character explains that with the simple sentence "all of our slaves ran away."
The story is about this white woman, her young charges and colleague, the balance of power between genders and repressed sexuality.
It is not about slavery and race. It is not a vehicle for civil rights promotion.
Yet, Coppola is getting grief for failure to include black actors. WTF? Why???!!!
A guy on my local film discussin board says "I lost interest in Beguiled after Coppola gave an asinine justification for why she didn't want to include black people in the antebellum South."
and another guy on that board, someone who we all respect, says "...But specifically, Coppola's comments are very oblivious to the current cultural climate. A white director making a movie set during the Civil War not including any black characters or any discussion of race is going to rile some people--especially when said movie is based on a previous film that had a fairly prominent black character. And yes, her obliviousness that any of this would be an issue comes off as quite privileged."
I feel as thpugh I am living in the land of Absurd. If Coppola wants to remake a film with her own interpretation, why in the world should she be expected to include exactly the same characters with exactly the same skin color? My head hurts.
Here is one article that discusses this film and lack of actors of color:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alannabennett/sofia-coppola-beguiled-power-dynamics?utm_term=.taM207VwK#.eoyaLNE2y