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by Lynn Lee
Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth / Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled
In a summer filled with movies by or starring women of exceptional talent, The Beguiled and Lady Macbeth make an especially fascinating cinematic pairing. Both films center on mid-19th century women who appear trapped by their societies’ constricting gender norms. In both, the women are confined to an isolated, often claustrophobic space, yet nature is a constantly beckoning presence that at once shapes and reflects their desires. (Both even have plots that turn on poisonous wild mushrooms!) And in both, the women up-end the patriarchal structure of their circumscribed universe without liberating themselves. If anything, they reinforce that power structure even as they seize momentary control of it, leaving not a feeling of triumph but a somber queasiness.
For all these thematic similarities, the differences between the two films are even more striking...
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