Watch trailer for Sofia Coppola’s Palme d’Or contender ‘The Beguiled’

Focus Features rolled out a trailer for Sofia Coppola’s period thriller The Beguiled ahead of its Cannes premiere. The film placed the director back in competition for the Palme d’Or and marked her first return to the festival since Marie Antoinette.

The story unfolds inside a Virginia girls’ school during the Civil War. A wounded Union soldier stumbles onto the property and is taken in by the headmistress and her small group of students. The arrival fractures the careful routines that have kept the women insulated from the fighting outside their gates.

Coppola adapted Thomas P. Cullinan’s 1966 novel, originally titled A Painted Devil. The book had already been filmed once, in 1971, by Don Siegel with Clint Eastwood as the soldier and Geraldine Page as the headmistress. That version told the tale mostly from the man’s point of view.

Coppola flipped the perspective. The new script centers the women’s alliances, suspicions, and shifting power dynamics. The result is a chamber piece built on restraint, glances, and the slow tightening of a trap.

The ensemble features Nicole Kidman as the headmistress, Colin Farrell as the injured soldier, Elle Fanning as one of the older students, and Kirsten Dunst as the teacher who has already seen too much of the outside world. Supporting roles include Angourie Rice, Oona Laurence, and Addison Riecke.

Release information

The film premiered in competition at Cannes on May 24, 2017. It opened in limited release across the United States on June 23 before expanding nationwide one week later. The final cut runs 94 minutes.

Reception and Critical Response

Reviewers responded warmly to the performances and the controlled atmosphere. Kidman’s cool authority, Farrell’s wounded charm, and Dunst’s weary pragmatism drew consistent praise. Critics noted how Coppola used tight framing and muted color to turn the school into a pressure cooker. Some outlets observed that the film’s deliberate pace might frustrate viewers expecting more overt suspense, yet most agreed the female-centric lens gave the material fresh weight.

Box Office Performance

Produced on a reported budget of $10 million, The Beguiled ultimately grossed roughly $27.9 million worldwide. Domestic earnings settled around $10.7 million. The modest numbers reflected its limited theatrical footprint and the specialized audience for Coppola’s restrained style.

Cannes Awards Outcome

Although the film did not take the Palme d’Or, Coppola received the Best Director prize. She became only the second woman to win the award in the festival’s history, following in the footsteps of Jane Campion. The recognition underscored the festival’s interest in stories told from the vantage point of the women inside the school rather than the soldier who briefly disrupts it.

Legacy and Modern Viewing

Years later the film still circulates as a compact example of Coppola’s interest in enclosed spaces and the politics of looking. Its measured tone and period detail continue to surface in conversations about female-directed prestige pictures. Viewers can currently find the title on Netflix in select territories and on other major streaming libraries depending on regional licensing.

The Beguiled remains a study in quiet power shifts. Coppola’s version keeps the gothic tension of the source novel while letting the women dictate every turn of the story inside those shuttered rooms.