Thomas Cullinan’s 1966 novel A Painted Devil was first brought to the screen by Don Siegel in 1971, with Clint Eastwood as a wounded Union soldier taken into a southern girls’ academy during the US civil war. In Coppola’s version, with Colin Farrell as Corporal Mc Burney, for which she won Best Director at Cannes, the focus is all on the story from the women and girls point of view – Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst are superb.