Defining Favourites: The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Sofia Coppola's directorial debut deconstructs the concept of teen angst.
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Directed by Sofia Coppola
Screenplay by Sofia Coppola, from the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides
Produced by Francis Ford Coppola, Julie Costanzo, Chris Hanley, Dan Halsted
Starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Scott Glenn, Michael Paré, Danny DeVito
Running Time: 97 minutes
Premiere: May 19, 1999 (Cannes)
In Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, the only people who truly knew the mystery of the Lisbon sisters were the sisters themselves. But of course, the boys around them could only do as much as peer into their lives, especially with the story being narrated by, supposedly one of the boys, 25 years after the deaths of the sisters. While the boys themselves won’t be able to fully understand the circumstances that led to their deaths, Sofia Coppola’s film gives us a moment to see things the way that the Lisbon sisters themselves had done – for they were no different from any other human being around them, yet the cries for help had always been present.
At the start of the film, the unseen narrator (Giovanni Ribisi) states “Cecilia was the first to go.” The moments leading up to Cecilia’s death are spelled out from there onward, first from a suicide attempt that led to a male therapist, Dr. Horniker (Danny DeVito), explaining that because she’s young, there’s more to her life worth living for. But in that moment, Cecilia blankly states “Obviously, doctor, you’ve never been a thirteen-year-old girl.” Moments like that are crucial towards creating a picture of a divide between how boys and girls are raised to see the world – but also the many things that are obscured from one point of view.
The mystery that surrounded the Lisbon sisters was a major focal point for novelist Jeffrey Eugenides, by a collective of teenage boys living within the neighborhood. All of them view the Lisbon sisters, especially Lux (Kirsten Dunst) as the most gorgeous person they’ve ever seen, an image of perfection that continually shatters itself the more the film goes on. Yet even as the innocence of the young boys in their bedazzlement with the girls can remain so pure, the sheltered nature of the girls themselves is where the tragedy is born.
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