Sofia Coppola Breaks Down the Dinner Scene from "The Beguiled"

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]