The Virgin Suicides

Sofia Coppola, USA, 1999, 97 minutes

Based on Jeffrey Eugenides’s haunting novel of the same name, the debut offering from Sofia Coppola (director of Lost in Translation) attempts to articulate, in the words of the script, “the imprisonment of being a girl”. The plot revolves around the five beautiful Lisbon sisters – the daughters of strict Catholic parents in 1970s Michigan.

The Lisbon sisters are the most sought after and yet most unattainable girls in their neighbourhood, and a few of the local boys practically camp outside their house for a glimpse of them. Beginning with the suicide of the youngest girl, Cecila, the boys begin to speculate about the lives of the girls, collecting souvenirs of them: diaries, lipsticks, hair ribbons, even before their parents begin to imprison their daughters in the house.

Because the Lisbon sisters remain enigmatic throughout the film, there is a wonderful sense of shared mystery between viewer and character. Just as the boys can never fully understand what has happened, or the feelings the Lisbons awaken in them, the audience is also allowed to experience this subtle and exquisite sense of the unknown.

Coppola infuses the film with a delicate colour palette, creating a dreamy, imagined 1970s purged of lurid colours and textures. What remains is a film with the perfect simplicity of an Eames chair. Beautifully scored by French band Air, the music adds immeasurably to the sense of longing that permeates the narrative. Against this backdrop, Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett turn in volcanically seductive performances as the teenage lovers Lux and Trip, perfectly capturing the rituals of highschool courtship.

After Lux stays out all night with Trip after the prom, the lockdown of the remaining four sisters begins. As they try to communicate with the boys in the outside world through flashing lights, pop music and cryptic notes, the sisters grow more listless and taciturn, until the final moment of escape.

Review by Sarah Artt
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2004