Clint Eastwood in The Beguiled
Last week I watched Clint Eastwood's directorial debut Play Misty for Me, which is a straight forward stalker film about a radio DJ who becomes involved with an obsessive fan. It wasn't a particularly engaging film, but it fits into an interesting point of Eastwood's career where he was transitioning from cowboy-actor to cop-director. The DVD extra about the making of Misty was much more interesting. It referenced not only the emergence of Dirty Harry in this period, but another film Eastwood and Siegel made together The Beguiled.
The Beguiled is about a wounded Yankee who takes refuge in a Southern girls' school. It's gothic horror with sexual jealousy and amateur surgery. Not particularly graphic, and so dreadful it is at times laughable, but is is still an interesting film, even if it is more of a film of indication than revelation. The typical Southern incestuous relationships and macabre turn of events are included. There really weren't many surprises; but then I'm pretty cozy with Southern gothic. The weird part was seeing Eastwood involved.
Apparently this movie marked a turning point in his career. It was an enormous flop and his feud with Universal over the way it was marketed led to Eastwood emerging as an independent actor/director. It also cemented his relationship with Siegel with whom he made several influential films. Siegel also mentored Eastwood as a director, even appearing as a bartender in Misty.
The NYTimes review from the same time makes the following assessment:
"The Beguiled" is Mr. Siegel's 26th film, as well as his most ambitious and elaborate. I'm not referring to the sets, costumes and Spanish moss-hung locations (the exteriors were filmed in Louisiana at a fine, photogenic, old plantation), but to the narrative style. The movie employs, in addition to straight exposition, interior thoughts spoken on the sound-track, flashbacks that contradict spoken dialogue and the kind of fantasies commonly enjoyed—according to literary convention—by hashish smokers, sailors and sex-starved spinsters....
This is very fancy, outrageous fantasizing from the man who gave us "Riot in Cell Block 11" and" Baby Face Nelson," and must strike horror in the hearts of those Siegel fans who've made a cult of his objectivity. "The Beguiled" is not, indeed, successful as baroque melodrama, and, towards the end, there are so many twists and turns of plot and character that everything that's gone before is neutralized. People who consider themselves discriminating moviegoers, but who are uncommitted to Mr. Siegel will be hard put to accept it, other than as a sensational, misogynistic nightmare.
I must say that I found it interesting (even when it approached the ludicrous) because of its place in relation to other Siegel films and because I have nothing but appreciation for the performers, especially Miss Page, Miss Hartman and Mr. Eastwood, who, by simply reacting well, has become an important actor of movies.
(I love that last point: Eastwood's strength as an actor through his reaction rather than his action. Interesting.)
However, what I found most interesting about the film is where it fit within the 'Girls' School' genre. Apparently there was some problems adapting the screenplay and it was originally written as a romantic comedy. (I envision something like Belle Epoque about a wounded soldier wreaking havoc in a household full of sisters. A fun, sex comedy, if you like that sort of thing.)
I've decided The Beguiled really fits more into the Girls' School ouvre than it does gothic horror. Just a few weeks ago![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
saintpookie screened The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which stars Maggie Smith as the thirtysomething teacher (groomer) at a girl's school in Scotland on the eve of WWII. While the focus of the movie is apparently somewhat different than Muriel Sparks' book (which is apparently one of those British novels that one thinks is about a love affair, but is actually about Catholicism, but I haven't read it, so I can't say.) the exploration of the female relationships, the link between romanticism and facism, and the all around general amazing fabulousness of the whole thing... if you have not seen The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie prepare yourself for a fantastic film.
Another one of my favorite 'girls' school' films (besides Cuaron's A Little Princess, which is one of my all time, but much more innocent, favorite) is Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock based on Joan Lindsey's novel about a several girls who vanish on a school outting. The hysteria, repressed sexuality, and the contrast between the outdoors/indoors, confined vs. infinite space is really fantastic. The movie is creepy and effective and really damn beautiful, even if Zamfir's pan flute get's a little annoying by the end of the film.
One of the most fascinating things about Picnic at Hanging Rock is the resulting phenomena of Hanging Rock, which isa sort of cult built around around the 'actual' events of the book/movie without their actually having been actual events. The book is so plausible and so suggestive there are people the world over who still believe that the story must be true.
Joan Lindsey is is daughter of Australian painter Norman Lindsey, whose life is touched upon in Sirens kind of artsy softporn (Elle MacPherson naked and with an extra 50 lbs, she looks luscious) treatment of the painter's life and women's sensuality. (I saw this film with a big group of female friends in high school and we all left feeling incredibly beautiful. When was the last time a movie did that for you? We still talk about the experience to this day, though I have to say seeing it years later, on video, isn't quite the same experience. Although I still give the movie props for its attempt to captures the female experience, even if it does so in a hackneyed and sort of fetishized way.) Norman Lindsey also happens to be the author of Australian (and colonial) children's classic The Magic Pudding, which is one of the weirder books from that period. (Though Australia has lots of weird kids classics, including the adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, who are two gumnut babies who have very twee adventures among botanically correct illustrations.)
Anyway, I don't have much synthesis to offer in terms of The Beguiled and hysterical school girl phenomena, but it's a subject that would be interesting to explore. Can anyone else think of any books/movies that deal with the 'hysterical school girl' genre/theme?
The Beguiled is about a wounded Yankee who takes refuge in a Southern girls' school. It's gothic horror with sexual jealousy and amateur surgery. Not particularly graphic, and so dreadful it is at times laughable, but is is still an interesting film, even if it is more of a film of indication than revelation. The typical Southern incestuous relationships and macabre turn of events are included. There really weren't many surprises; but then I'm pretty cozy with Southern gothic. The weird part was seeing Eastwood involved.
Apparently this movie marked a turning point in his career. It was an enormous flop and his feud with Universal over the way it was marketed led to Eastwood emerging as an independent actor/director. It also cemented his relationship with Siegel with whom he made several influential films. Siegel also mentored Eastwood as a director, even appearing as a bartender in Misty.
The NYTimes review from the same time makes the following assessment:
"The Beguiled" is Mr. Siegel's 26th film, as well as his most ambitious and elaborate. I'm not referring to the sets, costumes and Spanish moss-hung locations (the exteriors were filmed in Louisiana at a fine, photogenic, old plantation), but to the narrative style. The movie employs, in addition to straight exposition, interior thoughts spoken on the sound-track, flashbacks that contradict spoken dialogue and the kind of fantasies commonly enjoyed—according to literary convention—by hashish smokers, sailors and sex-starved spinsters....
This is very fancy, outrageous fantasizing from the man who gave us "Riot in Cell Block 11" and" Baby Face Nelson," and must strike horror in the hearts of those Siegel fans who've made a cult of his objectivity. "The Beguiled" is not, indeed, successful as baroque melodrama, and, towards the end, there are so many twists and turns of plot and character that everything that's gone before is neutralized. People who consider themselves discriminating moviegoers, but who are uncommitted to Mr. Siegel will be hard put to accept it, other than as a sensational, misogynistic nightmare.
I must say that I found it interesting (even when it approached the ludicrous) because of its place in relation to other Siegel films and because I have nothing but appreciation for the performers, especially Miss Page, Miss Hartman and Mr. Eastwood, who, by simply reacting well, has become an important actor of movies.
(I love that last point: Eastwood's strength as an actor through his reaction rather than his action. Interesting.)
However, what I found most interesting about the film is where it fit within the 'Girls' School' genre. Apparently there was some problems adapting the screenplay and it was originally written as a romantic comedy. (I envision something like Belle Epoque about a wounded soldier wreaking havoc in a household full of sisters. A fun, sex comedy, if you like that sort of thing.)
I've decided The Beguiled really fits more into the Girls' School ouvre than it does gothic horror. Just a few weeks ago
saintpookie screened The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which stars Maggie Smith as the thirtysomething teacher (groomer) at a girl's school in Scotland on the eve of WWII. While the focus of the movie is apparently somewhat different than Muriel Sparks' book (which is apparently one of those British novels that one thinks is about a love affair, but is actually about Catholicism, but I haven't read it, so I can't say.) the exploration of the female relationships, the link between romanticism and facism, and the all around general amazing fabulousness of the whole thing... if you have not seen The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie prepare yourself for a fantastic film.Another one of my favorite 'girls' school' films (besides Cuaron's A Little Princess, which is one of my all time, but much more innocent, favorite) is Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock based on Joan Lindsey's novel about a several girls who vanish on a school outting. The hysteria, repressed sexuality, and the contrast between the outdoors/indoors, confined vs. infinite space is really fantastic. The movie is creepy and effective and really damn beautiful, even if Zamfir's pan flute get's a little annoying by the end of the film.
One of the most fascinating things about Picnic at Hanging Rock is the resulting phenomena of Hanging Rock, which isa sort of cult built around around the 'actual' events of the book/movie without their actually having been actual events. The book is so plausible and so suggestive there are people the world over who still believe that the story must be true.
Joan Lindsey is is daughter of Australian painter Norman Lindsey, whose life is touched upon in Sirens kind of artsy softporn (Elle MacPherson naked and with an extra 50 lbs, she looks luscious) treatment of the painter's life and women's sensuality. (I saw this film with a big group of female friends in high school and we all left feeling incredibly beautiful. When was the last time a movie did that for you? We still talk about the experience to this day, though I have to say seeing it years later, on video, isn't quite the same experience. Although I still give the movie props for its attempt to captures the female experience, even if it does so in a hackneyed and sort of fetishized way.) Norman Lindsey also happens to be the author of Australian (and colonial) children's classic The Magic Pudding, which is one of the weirder books from that period. (Though Australia has lots of weird kids classics, including the adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, who are two gumnut babies who have very twee adventures among botanically correct illustrations.)
Anyway, I don't have much synthesis to offer in terms of The Beguiled and hysterical school girl phenomena, but it's a subject that would be interesting to explore. Can anyone else think of any books/movies that deal with the 'hysterical school girl' genre/theme?