Sofia Coppola Breaks Down the Dinner Scene from "The Beguiled"
Released on 06/22/2017
That dress is very becoming Ms. Edwina.
Hi I'm Sofia Coppola and this is a breakdown
of one of the dinner scenes
in The Beguiled.
This scene is a lot about the dynamics
between the women in the scene
and kind of the vying for the attention.
It's the first dinner scene
where Colin Farrell's character comes to dinner.
This is the best meal I've had in a long time.
One of the hardest things on this film
were these dinner scenes.
We had three of them
and coverage I think, is the hardest part
of directing movie to me,
because it is like you make a list
and then you have to make sure you get all the parts;
and they have to all fit together.
And we had a chart of where the camera;
just to keep track of the coverage.
[Actress Nicole] Now you stop your giggling.
The opening scene, the cinematographer, Philippe Le Sourd
and I decided to go through the girls
and then reveal that they have a new guest at dinner
because the first scene in the movie
with them at dinner is the women only.
So you see a difference from the scene
of just the women alone,
and then, when they have a guest there.
This shot we're looking at right now, the coverage
was between Colin and Kirsten.
We had to shoot her view of him and his view of her,
so the camera's not by Kirsten or Elle.
They're from McBurney's point of view.
So you get the whole feeling of the scene
as him watching them.
And I think as we see this scene
between Nicole and Kirsten, it's from Colin's point of view.
If I wanted the scene to be between them,
I would pop the camera from Nicole looking at Kirsten
and Kirsten looking at Nicole.
But on this we're watching them through his eyes
in this scene.
And also because the girls were underage,
the students, some of them, you can't work as many hours
as the adult actresses
so a lot of these scenes with the group
we have to shoot the shots of the younger girls first.
It was important because they would have to leave
to go to school or leave for the day.
A lot of times Elle would end up reading everyone else's
dialogue off camera, so we would lose actresses
while we were shooting the scenes.
But hopefully you would never know.
One of the things that interested me in this story
was the non-verbal communication between women.
I've really loved seeing Nicole convey so much
with these little looks and her French phrases.
You know her humor and her slyness that she brings
in a look which happened a lot around the table.
That dress is very becoming Ms. Edwina.
[Actress Kirsten] Thank you.
I wouldn't say its entirely suitable
for a young lady's school.
Oh Elle always cracks me up.
Her character is very self-absorbed
and always trying to be attractive
to Colin's character;
so it was fun because she presents herself
in a very different way than, it's not at all like her.
I would suggest that we change the subject.
And let Ms. Edwina draws her shawl.
Yes.
[Actress Nicole] That will avoid any more speculation
on the subject.
When Nicole's character asks Kirsten
to put her shawl on, Elle Fanning character gives a look
to Kirsten.
And I also love the gesture when Nicole raises her hand
to ask Kirsten to put her shawl on.
And I think you get a lot of the hierarchy
and the dynamics between the women.
And then the competition under the surface
which is not that under the surface in this scene.
So this scene is all about how a group of women
also changes when a man comes into the mix.
When were blocking the scene, I went with Philippe
with sort of the DP to that room, the dining room.
We had stand-ins and we looked at where we wanted
each actor to be before bringing the actors in
to rehearse the scene.
I knew that I wanted Nicole's character
as the head mistress
to be at the head of the table
and Edwina's character next to her.
In the story she's her assistant, her head teacher.
So she's always keeps her close.
And they have that power dynamic between the two of them.
Where Nicole is controlling of her,
so we wanted to show that by Kirsten sitting next to her.
I wanted Colin to be across the table as the guest.
That he was at the end with all the women around him.
And really a lot of the coverage could be from him
to them as a group.
And I wanted Elle across from Kirsten
because there was a lot of rivalry.
There might be other attractive shoulders here
if we are permitted to wear such dresses.
We were in the real dining room in this plantation house
and it was important that the lighting feel accurate
to the time.
They didn't have electricity.
I think we were shooting during the day
but blacked out the room
and I remember my production designer Anne Ross
and Philippe Le Sourd, the cinematographer, did a lot
of camera tests of different candles.
A lot of candle tests,
so we, I think it was the double-lit candle
that ended up being in the scene.
We would think of each character,
a lot of it is working with the art department
and photography and the costumes you're always
trying to convey, what the feeling of the scene is.
In subtle ways; and they're probably subconscious.
And this is the first scene
where they're in their formal attire.
So we thought about how each character
would approach that.
Kirsten's character is usually very
buttoned up and tightly wound.
In this scene, she's wearing a more opened top
which I guess is a little scandalous at the time.
And it was also fun to look at etiquette books
of that time, about what was appropriate and wasn't.
You weren't suppose to say thank you to a compliment
because that meant you were inviting more compliments.
You were not to wear makeup because it was vulgar.
'Cause it looked like you were inviting
men to look at you.
It was a very different time
and just Kirsten's little bit open dress
was risque.
But they talk about how she's from town.
She's not from this area
which is a little more loose, I guess.
So it also says something about her character,
that we learn that she's from a different area.
And maybe a little bit of a town girl.
I wouldn't say it's entirely suitable
for a young lady's school.
But we know Ms. Edwina is accustomed to town society
with different views.
Nicole's character is very religious.
So she's also the purveyor of manners.
So she starts dinner always with a prayer
and we had a priest come and talk about
kind of all the rituals around her religion,
which I think is important in her character
because she's torn between her religion
and then when a man comes in
and stirring up those kind of feelings.
So I wanted all this about to be going on
under the surface for these characters.
For me the fun part was to watch the actors
in their roles, when they would transform
into their characters
'cause we'd be all at lunch and they'd be themselves
and then we'd come on set and they turn back into their
1860s characters and it was always fun to watch.
We probably spent half a day on this scene, I think.
Maybe a day, 'cause as you see it's a lot of camera angles
which just takes time.
Thank you ma'am.
[speaks in foreign language]
Starring: Sofia Coppola
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