The Virgin Suicides (1999) User Reviews

A group of men remember five teenage girls from their youth.

[PippinInOz · 7/10 · 22 March 2011]

I watched this film on video not too long after it was first released. Remember being a bit underwhelmed to be honest. However, after watching it again yesterday have changed my mind considerably. This is because this time I watched it with a different approach. The best way to describe this film (and recommend it hopefully) is probably to ask some questions which played on my mind for quite a while afterwards. These are only my interpretations, but here we go:

The film is narrated by a group of boys, well, men who are remembering being boys is more accurate, although the very young sounding voice alerted me to something and led on to the first question: IS THIS NARRATORIAL VOICE RELIABLE?

I would suggest the clue to this question is in the title of the film 'The Virgin Suicides' - well they were not all virgins were they. According to the male's telling of the story, Lux has been sexually active by the time of her tragic death. Also, Trip Fontaine (and this is listed in the Goofs section here I noticed), speaking as a washed up bloke approaching 40 sitting in rehab, remembers being stoned and walking into the wrong History class the first time he meets Lux Lisbon - he was, according to the story, stoned every day - and on this day we are shown him escaping being caught by a teacher in the corridor. One, the sign on the door says: 'Language Arts' and Two, he was a big pot smoker at the time so in all fairness his memories might be a bit fuddled to say the least.

The fact Trip mentions 'History' is revealing as well. History is told by the victors - and the victors here - or survivors if you like, are all male, white, middle class and heading towards a Mid life crisis. At least a few have had broken marriages and relationships, handily using the Lisbon sisters as an excuse: 'They spoilt us for any future girlfriends and wives', the narrator says.

The narrators are re-writing history through the prism of their own present lives - and like any history, we should be aware that this tale is both extremely edited and also an apology.

Who is the object of the gaze? Who is being described and - importantly - WATCHED. The five girls obviously. I do not think it is any coincidence that during some of the boys' fantasy scenes concerning particularly Lux, the filming is connotative of old 1970s adverts for soap (Lux!!!!) and shampoo.

This leads on to another question: Why do the girls organise for the boys to be the first witnesses ('audience') to their mass suicide? I argue this is the only way they feel they can speak back (have a voice). Consider it, they are virtually imprisoned in the house and their only link with the outside world is via a telephone and - vitally important inclusion - the telescope. The boys watch the girls, particularly Lux having sex on the roof of the house - and the girls know it. They are being watched like hawks by their parents and the boys across the road. Once you start to take into account the unreliable narrator of this story, you will (trust me on this one) really really be spooked.

There is a nasty edge here - but like the silenced version of events from the girls themselves - it is always just out of shot. Lux gets seduced and dumped in the middle of a football field, the male narrators version of Trip 'a gentleman who never talks about his conquests' is air brushed. This is a fourteen year old girl remember, who has to find a taxi home.

The dreamy way this film is shot is clever and appropriate. The narrator cannot be trusted. Watch again for the sneaky smiles that Lux keeps giving over her shoulder, again straight from an advertising campaign for just about anything - according to the boys' story, she even smiles up at the telescope when they are watching her on the roof with a series of boys. Again: pure middle aged male fantasy.

The prevalence of the image of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady) is not there just because the family are strict Catholics, but part of the boys' (and then the men's) fantasy of the Virgin / Whore dichotomy.

When I watched it with these things in mind, it was just a revelation. Would love to see a re- write from the Lisbon sisters' perspective.

Just my interpretation - suspect there are many!

Oh, one last thing: those diseased (Dutch Elm Disease) trees lining the street - like the girls, they are marked for destruction.

Suicides Worthy of Reconsideration

[daoldiges · 7/10 · 4 January 2023]

When I first saw The Virgin Suicides during its original release, I thought it was a good looking film but suffered from the 'style over substance' syndrome. Having revisited recently I have changed my mind.

What does it all mean and how is this film to be viewed. I initially thought it was all and really only about the girls, but years later I realize it's more about the boys/now men. The whole thing is told exclusively from their perspectives. And one that is but distant memories/recollection from their youth. As such the viewer really must take these decades of distance between the events and the retelling into consideration and accept that the narration is suspect. It is suspect not only for the many years time, but it's basically teenage boys experiences with beautiful and captivating girls as the objects of those memories, told by the now adult teenage boys. The girls are so mysterious to the boys and the audience because teenage boys know nothing about teenage girls, and even though they are now adults they still don't understand them. The story is a combination of how things happened, along with how now decades later, they would have actually liked things to have played out. As such this makes a lot more sense and clarity to the story and one that I finally find to be interesting and worth checking out.

"How much can you write about dead trees?"

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 13 November 2001]

A strange, surreal flight-of-fancy of death and love, remembrance and how romanticized our memories become. It's also very funny, tending to mix the black comedy of something like "Heathers" with the stifling suburban scenario of "American Beauty" (but it's better than both). Kirsten Dunst is fantastic as the foxiest of five golden-toned sisters in the mid-'70s who feel trapped by their parents (a peculiar, but not overly monstrous couple), trapped by their feelings, trapped by time. They can breathe--and live freely--only in their fantasies (and perhaps in death), but do their realities represent a prison? It's the talent of writer-director Sofia Coppola not to push everything over-the-top; she's careful, she leaves the viewer contemplating the characters' motivations and actions. The situation is indeed unexplainable, yet it is in our nature to expect a resolution, to expect concrete evidence as to WHY and demand an answer. Yet there are no answers to the sadness of the strangers who live across the street, even as we pass through their lives and through their houses. "The Virgin Suicides" offers fascinating food for thought. *** from ****

Captures the Dark Comedy and Lyric Poetry of the Book

[d_fienberg · 31 January 2001]

I'm uncertain why the daughter of a Hollywood icon would select as her first director effort a nearly unfilmable book of linguistic time bombs and nearly unspeakable tragedy. Jeffrey Eugenides's book The Virgin Suicides is one of the underappreciated gems of the 1990s and surely Sophia Coppola must have known that the critics would have it out for anything she did (see reviews listed under "acting: Part 3, The Godfather"). So Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford, decided to do something unexpected: She made a gem of a movie that's easy to like and complex enough to savour.

Taking place "25 years ago" in "Michigan," The Virgin Suicides tells the story of a group of teenage boys and the Lisbon sisters, whose suicides changed them forever. The book is told with a rather unique choral narrator (the entire story is in the first person plural) which makes it clear that the focus of the story is not the Lisbons, but the boys and their attempts to restructure the events of what must have been their final summer of innocence. Similarly, the film features extensive voice-overs, culled from the book, coming from an unidentified member (or members) of the gang. You might wonder why you're never able to distinguish between any of the four or five or six males who wander through the story, or why at least several of the Lisbon girls also blend together, but rest assured it's intentional. The Virgin Suicides is very much about a baffled collective.

The movie begins with the first suicide attempt of the youngest Lisbon girl. When the doctor examining her asks why should would try to kill herself she offers the simple response, "Obviously, Doctor, you have never been a thirteen year old girl." The book and film are both really about men and how incapable we are of understand what it's like to be a thirteen year old girl or a thirty year old woman or really anything in between. And what's even more frustrating is the fact that women seem to understand men so devastatingly well (a trait perfectly personified in Kirsten Dunst's portrayal of middle sister Lux). The narrative such as it is marches inexorably through the gradual awakening of the narrators and the inevitable realization that they never knew anything.

Coppola, who also adapted the screenplay, makes decent use of the book's two metaphorical subplots -- an outbreak of Dutch Elm Disease and a cemetery worker's strike. The rot of suburban life lies at the core of this story and Coppola wisely never overplays her hand. She loves using mythic imagery, generally revolving around Dunst, an actress beginning to produce the kind of resume that speaks of longevity. Coppola's background in costuming is also evident, displaying the decadence and tackiness of the observing characters, contrasted with the spare Puritainism of the Lisbons.

Coppola gets mostly good performances from the young generation of her cast. As the only two characters to get individual notice, Dunst and Josh Hartnett do excellent work. She's the animal core of the film and he perfectly captures the perplexed, corrupted purity of the male side of the story. Playing against type, James Woods is excellent as the Lisbon's introverted henpecked father and Kathleen Turner is effectively scary as their domineering mother.

The film is also aided by some wonderful technical work including Jasna Stefanovic's nostalgic, but never cutesy production design and Edward Lachman's versatile cinematography. The soundtrack by the French band Air is also notable, mixed with various hit songs from the period.

The Virgin Suicides has perhaps too many moments of whimsy, where it seems too devoted to its source, even when the material doesn't translate properly. But still, it's the moments of magic -- the Lisbon girls prom, an eerie family party, and phone conversation spoken only with records -- that stand out. I'd give this one an 8/10.

ethereal haunted teenage dream

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 22 March 2015]

25 years ago in an affluent Detroit suburb, math teacher Ronald Lisbon (James Woods) and his wife (Kathleen Turner) have five beautiful girls. The neighborhood boys led by Tim Winer are all fascinated by them. The youngest Cecilia (Hanna Hall) tries to kill herself. Psychiatrist Dr. Horniker (Danny DeVito) tells the strict parents to let the girls interact with boys. They throw a party for the girls but Cecilia throws herself out the window impaling on the iron fence spikes. Father Moody (Scott Glenn) tries to comfort the family. Cecilia haunts everybody. Lux Lisbon (Kirsten Dunst) is the most outgoing and catches the eye of hunky Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett). Lux and the sisters Mary (A.J. Cook), Therese (Leslie Hayman) and Bonnie (Chelse Swain) would always hang out together. After a night out, the girls are kept inside with little outside contact.

Sofia Coppola brings a floating sad mysterious moodiness to the movie. She creates an unique dreamy vibe. The girls are fascinating but like the neighborhood boys, they remain a mystery throughout the movie to me. They feel like something imaginary that one can't get a hold of. That is very fascinating but after awhile, it's also very tiresome. We are forever outsiders looking in. I love the music, the mood and the style but I still want more.

Will never get over this movie.

[hugmedont · 10/10 · 11 May 2021]

This movie portrays the male gaze in a way I have never seen done before. I could talk about this movie with someone for hours. All the little hints the writers drop pull everything together. I mean at the beginning of the movie when the girls were getting out of the car and they each had a scene where there names were printed in different fonts and colors for all the girls was just one of the small ways the writers were trying to portray this image that all those beautiful girls were there own people. They weren't just the lisbon sisters, they were Lux, Bonnie, Mary, Cecilia, and Therese. They were 5 individual and deep characters the boys never even took the chance to learn about. The girls were so desperate for the boys to see them for their personalities they did the last thing that could signify a difference in them and that was literally to kill themselves all in different ways from each other.

This story is so heartbreaking and raw. It deserves so many awards.

A well crafted movie but the storytelling is lacking.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 6/10 · 10 December 2005]

"The Virgin Suicides" is a sort of mixed bag. It's a beautiful made movie with wonderful directed sequences in it but the storytelling doesn't always makes sense and is simply terrible lacking at times. A case of 'style over substance' you can perhaps conclude.

It isn't always clear in the movie where the movie is heading to. This is mainly because there are often characters introduced in the movie, who once after they are out of the story, make you wonder what exactly their purpose for the movie was. Characters come and go in this movie and once you think that they are going to play an important part for the movie, they are already gone again. The story isn't always told from the right perspective which makes this movie at times a bit incoherent to watch. This is also due to the fact that at times the movie is set in 'present time' (1999), while the rest of the movie is set in the '70's. Those sort of scene's make it pretty obvious that this movie is based on a book. I'm sure all those element worked just fine in the book but for a movie it is pointless and adds no extra value to the story. A lot of things still remain unclear after the movie has ended, which makes this movie as a whole an unsatisfying one to watch.

I also never really got into the characters. I never quite knew what went on in those girls heads and I never felt their desperateness and their cry for help. The portrayal of their parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner) was also a opportunity wasted. Instead as strict and tough parents they are portrayed as simply narrow minded people, who have their own ideas about what's good and wrong for their children. If they had portrayed the parents as two completely strict and tough persons, the movie would had become more, claustrophobic, sensible, emotional and more understandable.

The cast is good and has cameos in it from Danny DeVito and Scott Glenn and roles from Josh Hartnett and Hayden Christensen before they received real fame as actors. The movie however isn't really a character movie. The main essence of the movie is put on the style and look of it. For that reason the movie also perhaps feels a bit as a waste of a great cast.

The movie is good looking and well directed by Sofia Coppola but it seemed that they forget about the story at times. It makes "The Virgin Suicides" a bit of an incoherent movie to watch at times. Because of the lacking storytelling the movie never truly becomes emotional or truly understandable and therefor it's nothing more than a just average drama that is good looking but nothing more than that.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A depressing movie that is beautiful and timeless

[cinemaisdope · 9/10 · 27 March 2001]

As far as really really good movies I've had the fortune of seeing recently the one that really stands out is a overlooked movie that came out last year called "The Virgin Suicides." The movie while one of the more depressing movies in recent memories is just brilliantly directed by first time director Sofia Coppola (it was also her first screenplay - quite impressive indeed). I thought you know going into this movie A) I'm a guy and B) depressing movies just sometimes make it really really tough for me to like the movie they have those endings where its like you emotionally feel like you have just fallen off a cliff... yet despite A) and B) I was very moved by this movie... the directing, cinematography, acting, music - all work extremely well hand in hand complementing each other. This movie will make you even more so want to enjoy every second and moment with those rare & special people you meet on the roads of life.

Josh Hartnett as Trip Fontaine turns in a very cool performance. Kathleen Turner turns in a performance that is so good you wonder how she got overlooked when it came Oscar time... and of course James Woods is incredible as are all the Lisbon sisters. Kirsten Dunst is intoxicatingly beautiful in this movie and really proves she is going to be an amazing actress to watch in the years ahead.

Probably my favorite sequence in the movie is the telephone sequence towards the end... the scene starts out and your not quite sure where it's going to go... but once the needle on the record strikes and the Todd Rundgren song "Hello It's Me" starts to play it transports you into a genuinely touching movie moment (and a great use of split screens) as you watch the boys and Lisbon sisters phone each other back playing music that perfectly fits. Another favorite scene is where Josh Hartnett leaves the Lisbon house... and you know he is sorta on this "not-really a date - date. The montages throughout the movie and their interludes with the music by the band "Air" combined with the beautiful cinematography by Edward Lachman are just pure movie magic.

All in all a movie that draws you in despite its slow moments, depressing moments, and haunting moments... a movie full of life, quite moments, passion, imagination, reaching out, and those moments in life not usually seen in movies that are beautifully captured in a very passionate way. Going back over the movie I find that when the movie works you become much like the boys in the movie fully enthralled with the Lisbon sisters and searching for clues and answers as to "why... why... why"... as key and subtle moments pass by... its very hard not to fall in love with the Lisbon sisters... and though they exist solely in the realm of this movie... you feel that they are real as if they were someone you know in your life either as sister or a friend that you care about deeply and you feel their ups and downs... yet at the same time you can't reach out to help... though you desperately want to...

Beautiful, but not a great adaptation of the book

[deconstructing · 7/10 · 17 April 2011]

Sofia Coppola's film is an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides excellent novel of the same name. It is a beautiful, visually stunning movie, but it fails to capture the book's spirit.

The Virgin Suicides presents itself as a story about five mysterious Lisbon sisters. It all starts when the youngest one, Cecilia, tries to commit suicide, but, unsurprisingly, tragic events don't stop there. In essence, this is a coming of age story for the group of boys, who watch the Lisbon sisters and fantasize about them long after they're gone. It's also the story about the death of suburbia in the 70s.

The cast is very good, if a little surprising. Kathleen Turner and James Woods are excellent as the parents. Kirsten Dunst might not seem as the perfect person to play the most rebellious of the sisters, Lux, but she is quite good in capturing the character's spirit. Josh Hartnett as the school hearth throb Trip Fontaine, proves to poses an acting talent in one of his earliest roles. Too bad some of his later work was forgettable (or embarrassing). But bringing Trip Fontaine to life was not an easy task, given the importance of the character and the fact the screen time was limited, and he pulls that off with ease.

Copolla does her best to keep all the important dialogues and scenes from the book. Great attention is given even to the little details only people who've read the novel will notice: the bracelets, brown-and white saddle shoes, Trip Fontaine's necklace. Directors and screenwriters rarely do that these days, and it's a big plus.

However, the film never manages to be more than just average, if stunningly beautiful. It somehow includes all the details, but completely misses the atmosphere and spirit of the novel. It's probably because of Copolla's choice to focus on the sisters themselves and not the boys; this way, much of the mystery about them is gone, and it was one of the driving forces in the book.

But a film doesn't need to be a great adaptation of the book to be good. However, The Virgin Suicides is never fully able to exist on its own; there are many scenes and situations that seem confusing if you're unfamiliar with the book. So at the same time it fails to capture the novel's spirit, while being too dependent on the novel to fully stand on its own.

Kept me quite still

[peelmeuhgrape · 10/10 · 26 January 2001]

I had been meaning to see The Virgin Suicides since I first heard it was being released to film, based on its 1993 book by Jeffrey Eugenides. I never got around to it until the other night when I rented it on video.

Oh. My. God. This film was beautifully done with its easy-on-the-eyes cinematography, the shades of colours, the portrayal of seasons, the flawless actors (all of them), the way they moved & spoke.

As in the book, this film is told as a memory of a group of boys' fascination & obsession with the lives of a group of very blonde sisters.

It's not your typical formula film & includes a wondrous soundtrack, to say the least, with hypnotic contributions by Air. It still lingers in my mind - the true mark of a great film, in my eyes.

The book, the film, the soundtrack: I recommend them all.

First movie made by Sofia Coppola

[Lady_Targaryen · 6/10 · 8 March 2006]

I expected more from ''The Virgin Suicides''. This movie is told to be so good and even having a big name as Sofia Coppola helped me to have a big interest in watching it. But I found it a little bit boring, and also without a purpose: Okay, the girls committed suicide because they hated the life they were having with their horrible mother (Kathleen Turner) and called the boys because they wanted them to be witnesses of their suicide. And? I really lacked some reality in this movie. Not only from the parent's isolation from the world(come on,any teenager I know would try to escape from that horrible parents,me included) but some scenes after the Lisbon's girls died are so out of place, like the party where people uses gas masks.

Nice thing to see Josh Hartnett as Trip in this movie. He was always beautiful,but definitely changed for better.

aka "As Virgens Suicidas" - Brazil

Visual poetry at its finest

[sofiastahl-72122 · 10/10 · 25 March 2017]

Sofia Coppolas debut is my absolute favorite of all of her movies. Virgin Suicides has a unique look and is totally visual poetry with charming and hauntingly beautiful and melancholic scenes.

The stunning photography, the slow paced style of telling the story accompanied with the wonderful soundtrack makes this movie an absolute winner. If you are new to Coppola watch her debut and enter the world of sadness, happiness, emptiness and love.

Ed Lachman captured that wonderful light and Coppola really did something wonderful with the book which the movie is based on.

This is a highly recommended movie everyone should see at least once and if you catch it screening in a theater near you on 35mm go and watch it, I was lucky to do it and it was wonderful!

Beautiful Looking Mystery Gets Inside Teen Heads

[noralee · 7/10 · 12 December 2005]

"Virgin Suicides" is an adolescent "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus" as teen boys try to figure out the beautiful sisters in their midst.

It's encapsulated when the first suicide attemptee faces Danny Devito as her therapist who says she has nothing to kill herself over: "That's because you've never been a 13-year-old girl."

While Josh Hartnett's period wig isn't very good, his first serious acting effort is quite good and he almost keeps up with the excellent young women.

Perhaps it's a result of a woman writer/director adapting a male-written book (which I haven't read yet), but it really get inside teen heads. We get only a little sense, however, of the adults the guys become even as one narrates Wonder Years style so why is this story even important to him. And the one guy we do see as an adult is not much more revelatory.

It's all a mystery, very much like "Picnic At Hanging Rock."

It's a beautiful looking film with a dreamy musical score.

(originally written 5/14/2000)

A visually beautiful bore

[Impeckable · 5/10 · 3 January 2008]

After viewing this film, I've become interested in reading the book it was adapted from. Not because the movie struck me as a stunning masterpiece, but rather in the hopes the book will do a better job of telling a potentially good story.

Pretty cinematography, settings and music make for some nice eye and ear-candy (not dissimilar to Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette"), but don't help in communicating the plot.

The supposed "mystery" of the Lisbon sisters failed to draw me in. While the subplot ultimately leads to their punishment, too much time was devoted to Lux's relationship with Trip and the time spent locked up in their rooms was not investigated. Apart from Lux, there was no character development and I didn't care for any of the characters.

What mystery was there that plagues neighborhood boys? While the boys became scarred for life, I felt unfulfilled and bored. Honestly, I'd describe this film as a light-hearted flick rather than depressing. 5/10.

Dreamy, poignant, captivating...a must-see!

[kgx311 · 15 January 2001]

The Virgin Suicides. Just the name may scare away viewers from this film. But if you are a fan of the 1993 novel, you will appreciate the way this vivid portrayal captures the spirit of love, life, and death. The story begins with an introduction to the Lisbon family. Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon gave birth to five daughters: Cecile, Lux, Mary, Bonnie, and Therese, all ranging in ages from thirteen to seventeen. Following a suicide attempt from Cecile, her parents and sisters struggle to give her what they think she lacked before; love, attention, admiration. But somewhere along the way, Cecilia grew lost and constantly withdrew from many situations. One tragic night at a Lisbon party, Cecilia succeeds at committing suicide. What follows is a bittersweet experience in the girl's lives. The story is narrated by the neighborhood boys, who lust after the girls, collecting everything they can of theirs and holding meetings just to talk about the wonders of their forbidden fruit. After strict Mrs. Lisbon shuts the house in maximum security isolation, the girl's only contact with the outside world is through these boys. This poignant, beautiful drama, written and directed by newcomer Sofia Coppola, captures the smooth lifestyles of mid 1970s suburbia, along with the beauty and angst of teenage life. It shows us how deeply through the heart emotions can run, and how to get in touch with them. Kirsten Dunst, the beautiful and talented young actress that portrays the most rebellious of the sisters, is stunning and provacative. Her best work yet.

A beautiful story, a bit slow

[siderite · 7/10 · 5 August 2007]

This is one of those movies that appeal to me tremendously, that is movies about childhood and coming of age written by and for adults. Most of them are based on books, making beautiful stories, with soul and originality.

In "The Virgin Suicides" the story is told by four kids, trying to understand five beautiful girls in a very strict family, living across the street. Final tragedy makes them only less likely to understand the feelings and lives of the girls and renders them impotent watchers of a story they haven't been part of, just like everyone else.

But this is not a moral easily detected. This is not a movie where black is black and white is white and the ideas of the writer/director are forcefully pushed down one's throat. The story is watched and then relayed to the viewer. You can either sympathize with the strict moral mother or hate her you can agree with the "freedom or death" slogan or believe it stupid; you can understand the reactions of the boys or curse them for not acting faster or better or differently.

Bottom line: you have to see it to make something of it. I personally think the movie is a good one, but not a great one. If I could, I would rate it 7.4.

thank you sofia

[kimberlytrini · 10/10 · 20 August 2020]

This movie feels like coming home but at the same time is like going to the darkest place inside myself. I love it

Those girls have a bright future ahead of them

[RebelXStar · 7/10 · 15 November 2015]

Set in 1974, the story centres around a group of teenage boys and their fascination with five mysterious sisters known as the Lisbon girls in their final days.

The story begins with the attempted, and then successful, suicide of the youngest Lisbon, Cecilia who impales herself on a metal fence during a party that was intended to cheer her up after her first suicide attempt.

The family are left devastated and while the four remaining sisters, Therese, Mary, Bonnie and Lux (played perfectly by Kirsten Dunst) don't outwardly display the same self-destructive tendencies Cecilia showed, it is clear that their strict upbringing by their passive father and overly religious mother is a source of discontentment for them; most notably Lux, the youngest and easily least content of the remaining girls.

A glimmer of hope appears when Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), the cocky high-school heartthrob falls in love with Lux, who ignores him at first, which makes him want her more. He asks her to the homecoming dance and her parents reluctantly agree but only if he can find dates for all of the sisters so that they can all go. There are, of course, no shortage of potential dates.

The evening goes well until Lux misses curfew because she is having sex with Trip on the football field. He loses interest in Lux immediately afterwards and abandons her, leaving her to make her way home the next morning by herself, causing the girls' parents to put them all on total lock down. They are taken out of school and withdrawn from the world almost entirely.

Feeling dreadful for the girls, the neighbourhood boys do what they can to help them feel connected to the world, such as playing song lyrics down the phone to each other and using flashing lights to communicate Morse code across the street.

The lock down seems to send Lux over the edge as she starts having sex with random boys on the roof of the house, much to the boy's amusement.

One evening the boys think their luck is in when the sisters invite them over after Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon are asleep, seemingly to go for a joyride or road trip. But when they arrive Lux appears to be in a melancholy mood. In reality, the sisters have each taken their life in a different way in a different room of the house and they just wanted the boys to witness it.

I must admit that I went into this movie biased towards liking it as years before viewing I had the ear candy that is the soundtrack composed by French duo, 'Air' that compliments the movie's dreamy, surreal tone perfectly.

No real reason or catalyst is ever given as to why the sisters feel that suicide is the only escape from their present reality and some feel that the movie glamourizes suicide (the movie is very beautiful), but I would argue that as the story is told through the eyes of a boy who idealises the girls, many years after the events of the movie took place, he is telling the story as he remembers it, not how things actually were.

Sofia Coppola is a genius

[sara_o1 · 9/10 · 23 January 2005]

I've searched for this movie more than two years, cause I've read the book and I do love it. It's one of the most beautiful stories about teenagers that had ever been written. The suicides of these five beautiful girls aren't to be taken seriously, it's a metaphor the author uses. He wants so write about the strange and often really terrible feelings teenagers have. And Sofia Coppola created an atmosphere I can't describe. Just as a light wind on a hot summer day, if you know what I mean. She's really one of the greatest young directors (especially female) of our time. "Lost in Translation" is a masterpiece as well. The actors were good, Kirsten Dunst is such a great actress, she should do more movies like "The Virgin Suicides", where she really has to act. Josh Harnett is wonderful as Trip and the girls who play Therese, Mary, Bonnie and Cecilia, are great discoveries. If you like films with depth, films you have to think about, this one here is remarkable for you. Please, watch it and immerse in the world of the Lisbon girls and the boys next door.

P.s.: I hope I didn't make too much mistakes. :)

The Virgin Suicides review

[renegadeviking-271-528568 · 7/10 · 25 September 2023]

Maybe I'll finally watch all of a director's work in the order that it was actually released. That would be a nice change. I say that having just noticed that The Virgin Suicides, the first Sofia Coppola film I've seen, is actually Sofia Coppola's first film. I thought it was a very good film, especially considering it's a directorial debut. It creates a nice air of mystery, evokes the 70s nicely, and deals with some interesting themes concerning voyeurism and loss of innocence. Most impressively, its tone is very assured and controlled, putting us in the middle of a strange, dreamlike landscape without eschewing humor or genuine sentiment.

The Lisbon family is ostensibly like any other, until the layers are peeled back. The father (James Woods), a mild mannered math teacher at the local high school and the mother (Kathleen Turner), an extremely overprotective and religious housewife, conspire to keep their five daughters isolated from anything that could harm (or instruct) them. A group of adolescent boys in the neighborhood are obsessed with them, viewing their isolation as perfection. The youngest, Cecilia (Hanna Hall) commits suicide at a party after one failed attempt, and a year later, after more and more strictures from the mother, the other four follow suit. In the intervening time, attention is paid to the second youngest, Lux (Kirsten Dunst), and her doomed romance with Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett).

The interesting thing about this movie is not that it is about the suicides of seemingly perfect teenage girls, but that it is about the boys' fascination with them. Their fascination makes the movie into the mystery that it is; without the adoration and bafflement of the boys toward the girls the movie would probably be fairly straightforward. As it is, it offers no easy answers to the mystery the boys seek to solve, but depicts wonderfully their motivations for solving it. The girls are shown as mysteries that can't be solved, but the boys suffer exquisitely in trying.

While the boys seem to keep this romantic outlook throughout the rest of their lives, the girls sacrifice theirs after realizing that it is false. It's hard to really tell if it's Cecilia's suicide that sparks the others or if it's Lux's loss of innocence. After Trip leaves her, the girls are shut up in their house by their mother. They don't go to school and dream of escape. Presumably they could have tried, but chose death instead. Stripped of their romantic ideals, perhaps it wasn't worth leaving the house.

The film is shot beautifully by cinematographer Edward Lachman, instilling the picture with a sense of nostalgia, longing, and idolatry of the Lisbon girls. There are many dream sequences that only happen in the boys' minds, showing the girls frolicking in sunny wheat fields like they are in a Terrance Malick film. The whole film has a slightly blurred and fuzzy look to it, like looking at an old photograph. The sound design plays into this sense of nostalgia as well, we can often hear the dead space on a record for no discernible reason at all. There is also a good bit of voyeuristic camerawork in the film that enhances the fact that we are viewing the girls from the boys viewpoint and not their own. This isn't about the girls' lives as they experienced them, but about how the boys saw them. Several conversations are shot from behind a closed door, and we can only half hear what is taking place. There are multiple shots of actors viewed from behind; they are talking but we can't see their faces.

So all in all, I'd definitely have to say that The Virgin Suicides was both a promising introduction to Coppola's work as well as an impressive first feature. It dealt with some interesting issues and was shot and acted very well, and kept me watching throughout its running time. One can't ask too much more from a film.

Wonderfully tragic

[tiagozord · 10/10 · 11 December 2014]

I know there are better movies out there. I know there might be flaws, maybe in the technical aspects, maybe in the story, I know all that... but this is the best movie I've seen so far. I saw it for the first time when I was at the local Blockbuster and the title caught my eye. The story reminds me of a time when boys secretly adored girls. When it was normal to "collect" information about them, to watch them from afar. Innocence. There's tragedy in all this, but this movie has a magic that just makes me love it. The choice of actors is good, the story is captivating and the soundtrack is wonderful. I've lost count to how many times I saw it and it's always like if it's the first time.

Aesthetically beautiful though watery plot

[btongninjaturtle · 7/10 · 2 September 2020]

Amazing camerawork, awesome performances, fun, teenage celebration, overall a very solid movie. That said, loses a lot of points and potential for a few reasons:

1. Pacing: everything was pretty good until the end, when the suicides do happen. The final scenes feel very rushed and don't develop the girls sadness at all. Quite the contrary they offer a sort of reprieve in their communications with the boys. This might read to some people as a "twist" but knowing from the beginning that they're all going to kill themselves doesn't support that idea.

2. The resolution: Again, why did they kill themselves? And in such spectacular fashion? I don't think its crucial that Sofia answer these questions explicitly, but the obvious answer given (fundamental Christian mom smothers her kids) is so unsatisfying and boring that I can't believe that was all there was to it. Unfortunately the film doesn't expound on this, there's this sort of stupid mystique to why 5 girls would decide to kill themselves, when that decision would have been highly personal and important and could've been used to say so much more.

3. The pseudo-philosophical lamenting by the narrator: Kind of charming when they're looking through the sister's diary, watching them from a telescope, talking with the other neighborhood boys. But this idea is really not central to the plot until the ending scene where the narrator states he was in love with the sisters, and that he wishes that he could put back the pieces together of why they killed themselves, wishing he could solve the mystery, etc etc. With the lack of any substance (points 1 and 2) to actually take meaning from, its annoying how much meaning and nostalgia the narrator has. This is also exemplified by Trip's proclamation of true love to Lux, despite leaving her on the field in the middle of the night and never calling her. These things just don't add up. There's too much mystery for mystery's sake, without any reason or explanation outside of "its weird"

Sad the movie missed the mark in such crucial ways, could have been really great.

Tragic, Morbid and Disturbing Theme Explored with Extreme Sensibility

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 8 March 2006]

In 1974, in Michigan, the lives of a group of teenage boys are affected by the suicide of five girls from the Lisbon family. Cecilia (13) (Hanna Hall), Lux (14) (Kirsten Dunst), Bonnie (15) (Chelse Swain), Mary (16) (A.J. Cook) and Therese (17) (Leslie Hayman) move with their Mathematics teacher father Mr. Lisbon (James Wood) and their possessive housewife mother Mrs. Lisbon (Kathleen Turner) to a calm suburb house. Their beauties attract the attention of a group of boys that meet in the house on the other side to watch the girls. When Cecilia commits suicide, the girls stay at home for a period, returning to school later. When the handsome football player Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett) seduces Lux and spends the night outside with her, Mrs. Lisbon locks the girls at home, leading them to commit massive suicide.

The first time I saw this movie was on 15 October 2001, and I was impressed with the magnificent debut of Sofia Coppola as a director. Yesterday I saw "The Suicide Virgins" again and I keep my first impression. Sofia Coppola uses the opposite style of her sensationalist father, and explores with extreme sensibility this tragic, morbid and disturbing theme, the suicide of teenagers. The behavior of the American society is subtly criticized, through the condemned action of the press and the lack of attitude from the neighbors and school community, since these agents see and comment the abnormal behavior of the Lisbon family and take no attitude to help the girls. The nostalgic music score, with classics from the 70s, is another plus. With regard to the charismatic team of actors and actresses, their performances are simply stunning. Five years later, it calls the attention the modifications mainly in Josh Hartnett, who I believe was participating of his first important movie: he was a practically unknown teenager, and now is a famous adult actor. Kathleen Turner, from the sexy and gorgeous Matty Walker/Mary Ann Russell of "Body Heat" (1981) to this awful Mrs. Lisbon, is also impressive. "The Suicide Virgins" is a movie that deserves to be watched many times. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "As Virgens Suicidas" ("The Suicide Virgins")

A haunting film filled with beautiful imagery

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 7/10 · 2 June 2000]

I know this movie may not be to all tastes but I liked it very much. A lot. If I didn't know any better I'd say it still WAS the 70s thanks to the unique atmosphere the movie creates.

Cinematography was brilliant. There are many scenes warmly lit with orange sunlight and it is very pleasant on the eye. This made Kirsten Dunst seem even more beautiful than she is. Which is very beautiful indeed.

Another thing about this movie is that the teen males are mature and behave in a dignified and respectful way. Not like most other teen movie these days when all they do is party, joke about diarrhoea and make love to pastries. That quality in The Virgin Suicides was new and refreshing to me.

I know this film doesn't have a wide release so see it whenever you get the chance and you'll end up wishing that more films were made this way.

Well-packaged, unobtrusive, tastefully done and... without substance

[Asa_Nisi_Masa2 · 5/10 · 21 September 2005]

Sofia Coppola's film is not unlike the music provided by Air for its soundtrack: nice, but a little bit hollow. All in all, I would say I enjoyed this film, just like all in all, I enjoy Air's music when someone puts on one of their CDs during a dinner party (Air is a favourite of many people who have dinner parties that I know). Air's music is immaculately packaged, unobtrusive, tasteful and on the whole, unobjectionable. Coppola's film is exactly the same. Liking Air and liking The Virgin Suicides is, if not a complete, absolute and irrefutable sign of having good taste, at least not a sign of having bad taste, that's for sure. But what exactly was this film about? The meaninglessness, hypocrisy and hollowness of suburbia and "respectable", bourgeois society (a favourite target for many artists). The voyeuristic nature of the media (another popular one). The spontaneity and genuineness of the young (epitomised by Cecilia, the youngest sister in the film), a spontaneity etc which is killed off and sucked dry by the stifling, unwritten rules of respectable, middle-class, white American society. The slow but steady death of nature at the hands of the human race. Yadda yadda. Can I object to any of these themes? No, of course I can't. They're all worthy themes and the film was nowhere near preachy about any of them. Credit to Coppola for that. As I said, this film is very tastefully done. I'm not sure though: The Virgin Suicides could be about some if not all of these things and more besides, yet it remains soft in focus, "airy" (not just in the soundtrack) and somehow, void of substance. Yet I cannot say I wasn't enjoying it as I was watching it, just as I cannot say I haven't enjoyed listening to Air playing in the background at a dinner party. But the enjoyment was never more than skin-deep. And to be honest, though I've been left with nothing negative from this film and the fashionable French band's music, I've also not been left with anything positive either - nothing that lasts, nothing to keep. This is all just... an unobjectionable lack of real substance with a very clever, unobjectionable appearance of substance. All very tastefully done, of course. 5/10