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Rating:  -
Having seen "Marie Antoinette" and the first half of "Lost In Translation" (I wasn't able to get through the entire thing), I admit I am no fan of Sofia Coppola. I believe she is an over-rated director whose films are looked upon as deep and meaningful, while they are in fact quite shallow and pointless. Such was the case with "The Virgin Suicides".
The film revolves around four (or was it five?) good-looking sisters, who live in a very religious household and see suicide as their only escape from the shelter they've been put into. The story is told through the eyes of the neighborhood boys, who lust after these girls, but feel as if they don't know anything about these mysterious creatures.
The problem is, neither do we. The fact that I can't even remember how many of the sisters there were tells something - except for Lux, played by Kirsten Dunst, these girls are just there to fill the frame, and they have no characteristics or background stories. The first half hour of the film starts promising, with the death of the youngest sister, but after that, there is another hour or so of nothing. There is this guy, played by Josh Hartnett, who is in love with Lux, and then the movie is filled with tedious scenes that seem to go on forever... It is clear from the start that these girls are depressed because of the repressing environment they are growing up in, but the movie doesn't go anywhere from there.
I honestly do not understand why anyone would like this movie. What offended me the most was how pretentious it was. The only good thing about this film is Kirsten Dunst, who is gorgeous and exploited to the maximum - there are countless scenes of her in slow motion, waving, shaking her hair, winking, etc. It is a pleasure to see just how much the camera love sher - but you might as well just look at the DVD cover for hours and feel the same thing. You won't miss out on a good story, I promise you!
Rating:  -
I have loved this movie the first time I watched it. It's a movie that I can find something different to admire with each viewing. It's so tragic and it didn't happen. I had heard somewhere that this was based lossley on a true story, but I think that's a myth. The belongings left for trash at the end just breaks my heart. You understand, grieve for, and are angry for the parents. As a mother, the only way that I can see their own lives continuning is mental illness that requires them to be committed, serve alcholhics, or turing to suicide themselves.
Rating:  -
This movie and the book were not high on my list to see or read. I happened on the audiobook and ended up liking it. I figured I would see the movie as well. Overall; it's an ok movie. Sofia made some changes probably due to the theme but some things she either left out or shouldn't have changed.
The biggest thing missing was the complete collapse of the household. Both the family and the house fell apart. The family gave up on just about everything. You did not see the yard overgrowing; the roof falling apart; the great amount of trash in the house and the left-over rotten food on the floors. The fact the mother stopped cooking and cleaning which made the girls fend for themselves by eating out of cans and washing their own cloths in the tub. Gone are the fish flies which were not cleaned up during the time and added to dilapidation of the house.
Cecilia who was a shadow of her former self came across as simply a shy girl. In the book her empty shell appearance added to the stories of being a crazy and gave the gossipy neighbors a reason for why she killed herself.
Mary who survived her suicide for a month; didn't in the movie.
Mr and Mrs Lisbon who disappeared in the middle of the night; left in daylight.
One thing Eugenides did in the book was that he really didn't give a clear answer to why the girls committed suicide. In the movie, it was easy to blame mainly Mrs. Lisbon and to a degree Mr. Lisbon.
Overall it's not a bad movie but as with many movies; I found the book to be better.
Rating:  -
"In the first few days after the funeral, our interest in the Lisbon girls only increased. Added to their loveliness was a new mysterious suffering, perfectly silent, visible in the blue puffiness beneath their eyes or the way they would sometimes stop in mid-stride,look down, and shake their heads as though disagreeing with life."
Based on Jeffrey Eugenides' stunning debut novel, The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola's 1999 film follows the haunting suicides of five sisters. The film takes place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan in the 1970s. Four teenage boys (now middle-aged men) look back on their neighbors, the five Lisbon sisters: 13-year-old Cecilia, 14-year-old Lux, 15-year-old Bonnie, 16-year-old Mary, and 17-year-old Therese. After first attempting suicide by cutting her wrists, Cecilia later succeeds at ending her life by jumping from a window during a party. This sensational incident both fascinates and confuses the local Grosse Pointe community. Lux Lisbon then begins a relationship with school heartthrob, Trip Fontaine. When Lux misses curfew following her homecoming dance, all four girls are punished by their parents. Lux's mother forces her to burn her rock albums with provocative lyrics. The Lisbons become reclusive and their lives appear to deteriorate. As the Lisbons become more isolated from the community, their neighbors become even more obsessed with the family. Soon Lux begins having anonymous sex on the roof, while the boys watch from across the street. The four sisters then kill themselves for no apparent reason. The Lisbons sell their house and, in an attempt to make sense of the suicides, their neighbors salvage through the family's personal effects and trash (finding Cecilia's diary, family photos and other personal items belonging to the girls), proving that one man's trash is another man's treasure or, in the case of this film--another man's fetish. The point of this intriguing film is that some things are just unknowable.
What makes this film so good is partly the novel on which it is based, and partly its gifted young director. Coppola's fine film debut stars Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Danny DeVito, Kathleen Turner and Josh Hartnett. Much of the dialogue and narration in her film is faithful to Eugenides' novel. As a director, Coppola shows an understanding and sensitivity for the film's painful subject and the inner lives of the Lisbon sisters. The film's score features thirteen tracks by the French electronic band Air. Both the novel and the film are highly recommended.
G. Merritt
Rating: -
" ... the way it made your mind active and dreamy. And how you ended up knowing what colors went together ...
... our job was to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them."
These are the words of the film's "want-to-be heroes" or, perhaps more accurately, endearing voyeurs: a small group of awestruck boys. The film is narrated (by the compelling voice of Giovanni Ribisi) in the present. The narrator was a part of this collection and we learn about the Lisbon sisters through him. Though still enamored with the Lisbon sisters ("The only way we could feel close to the girls was through these impossible trips which have scarred us forever, making us happier with dreams than wives"), the narrator's recount is as frank as it is heart-breaking.
In contrast to these young men, Coppola shows us a litany of salacious adolescent-men desperate to take advantage of these shelter girls/women: in particular, Trip Fontaine (played in youth by Josh Hartnett). His present day recount of Lux (Dunst) is repellent ... his claims of love belie the truth. The only comfort we glean is that present-day Trip, once the heart-throb of girls and mothers, has aged badly (dirty, unshaven, unkempt etc) and is in a treatment facility. Still, it seems "not enough." Nonetheless, through this comparison, we see both the kindheartedness of the first group of boys (even though they sexualize the Lisbon sisters, they care for them) versus the heartlessness of another. Balance resides in Coppola's work.
Though set in the 70's, Coppola's work tackles a number of still pertinent issues. It underscores the callousness of the news-media, as well as its tendency to promote generalizations. Watching the media's reaction to Cecilia's death (this is not a spoiler ... the film's first line is "Cecilia was the first to go") and its impact on schools/parents reminds the viewer of Michael Lehmann's Heathers ("Suicide, Don't Do It!"). Likewise, Coppola's work shows us the results of parental oppression ... Mrs. Lisbon (Kathleen Turner) suffocates her children in her outmoded morality. The results ... well, it's all in the film title. Sympathy is garnered for Mr. Lisbon (beautiful played by James Woods). He has little power over his restrictive wife; still, he tries to gain liberties for his daughters. His love for his children, his desire for them to be normal, crushes our hearts.
Edward Lachman's cinematography is gorgeous. Watch for pale pink and blue lighting in the Lisbon sisters' room. Lachman explains that he used it to underscore the innocence of the sisters. Likewise, the use of toxic-green at the asphyxiation-party is effective and appropriate (watch for green desserts, drinks, gas-masks etc...) It emphasizes not only the literal poison but the toxic-ignorance of the adults (who gossip, who mock the girls, who feign suicide at this party.) (For more on color in film, see Patti Bellantoni's If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling). Brilliantly crafted. The film also boasts a beautiful use of split-screen (so rarely done well) toward its conclusion (during the scene where the boys play records over the phone).
Coppola's work is a must-see for anyone interested in coming-of-age films, indie film, or the lives of women.
Suggested reading:
Eugenides, Jeffrey. Virgin suicides. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993.
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