The Virgin Suicides (film)

The Virgin Suicides
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sofia Coppola
Produced by	Francis Ford Coppola Julie Costanzo Dan Halsted Chris Hanley
Written by	Sofia Coppola Jeffrey Eugenides (Novel)
Narrated by	Giovanni Ribisi
Starring	James Woods Kathleen Turner Kirsten Dunst Josh Hartnett A.J. Cook
Music by	Air
Cinematography	Edward Lachman
Editing by	Melissa Kent James Lyons
Studio	American Zoetrope
Distributed by	Paramount Classics
Release date(s)	United States: May 12, 2000 United Kingdom: May 19, 2000 Australia: August 10, 2000
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million
Box office	$10,409,377

The Virgin Suicides is a 1999 American drama film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, produced by her father Francis Ford Coppola, starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, and A.J. Cook.

Based on the novel of the same name by Jeffrey Eugenides, the film tells of the events surrounding the suicides of five sisters in an upper-middle class suburb of Detroit during the 1970s. After the youngest sister attempts suicide, the sisters are put under great scrutiny from their parents as well as from their community.

Plot

The story takes place in affluent Grosse Pointe, Michigan in 1974, as four neighborhood boys reflect on their neighbors, the five Lisbon sisters. Strictly unattainable due to their overprotective, authoritarian, parents, Ronald (James Woods) and Sara (Kathleen Turner), the daughters, Therese (Leslie Hayman), Mary (A.J. Cook), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Lux (Kirsten Dunst), and Cecilia Lisbon (Hanna R. Hall), are the enigmas that fill the boys' conversations and dreams.

The film begins with the suicide attempt of the youngest sister, Cecilia, and the immediate aftermath. During a chaperoned party that summer — intended to make Cecilia feel better — Cecilia excuses herself mid-party and finally succeeds in taking her life by jumping out of her bedroom window and impaling herself on an iron fence. In the wake of her act, the Lisbon parents remove the fence and begin to take an even closer watch over their daughters, choosing to further isolate the family from its community and heightening the air of mystery about them.

The new school year starts that fall and Lux forms a secret relationship with Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), the school heartthrob. Trip comes over one night to the Lisbon residence to watch television, and persuades Mr. Lisbon to allow him to take Lux to the Homecoming dance by promising to provide dates for the other sisters, so that they may all go as a group. After being crowned Homecoming Queen and King, Lux has sex with Trip on the football field that night. Lux falls asleep and Trip abandons her immediately. Lux wakes up alone and has to take a taxi home.

Having broken curfew, Lux and her sisters are punished by a furious Mrs. Lisbon by being taken out of school and sequestered within their house indefinitely. Unable to leave their home, the Lisbon sisters contact the neighborhood boys across the street by using light signals and sharing songs over the phone as a means of communicating their emotions back and forth.

During this time, Lux begins to have anonymous sexual encounters on the roof of the house late at night; the boys watch from across the street. Finally, after months of confinement, the Lisbon girls leave a note for the boys to presumably to help them escape from the house. When the boys arrive that night, they find Lux smoking a cigarette alone in the living room. She invites them inside to wait for her sisters, while she goes to wait in the car. The boys briefly imagine the group of them driving blissfully away on a sun-soaked country road.

The boys wander into the basement and discover a body hanging from the ceiling; terrified, they rush back out of the house. In the process, they stumble across the bodies of the remaining Lisbon sisters, who had all killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact moments before: Therese took sleeping pills, Bonnie hanged herself in the basement, Mary stuck her head in the gas oven, and Lux died of carbon monoxide poisoning by leaving the car engine running in the sealed garage.

Devastated by the suicides of all their children, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon quietly flee the neighborhood, never to return. The Lisbon house is sold soon after to a young family from Boston, along with all their personal belongings. Seemingly unsure of how to react, the adults in the community go about their lives as if nothing important really happened. The dead girls forever remain a source of mystery and grief for the boys, however, who cannot forget them. The film ends with one of the boys acknowledging in voiceover that they will spend the rest of their lives trying to put together the unsolvable mystery of the Lisbon sisters.

Cast

• James Woods as Ronald Lisbon
• Kathleen Turner as Sara Lisbon
• Kirsten Dunst as Lux Lisbon
• Josh Hartnett as Trip Fontaine
• Michael Paré as Adult Trip Fontaine
• A.J. Cook as Mary Lisbon
• Hanna R. Hall as Cecilia Lisbon
• Leslie Hayman as Therese Lisbon
• Chelse Swain as Bonnie (Bonaventure) Lisbon
• Jonathan Tucker as Tim Winer
• Noah Shebib as Parkie Denton
• Anthony DeSimone as Chase Buell
• Lee Kagan as David Barker
• Robert Schwartzman as Paul Baldino
• Scott Glenn as Father Moody
• Danny DeVito as Dr. E.M. Horniker
• Hayden Christensen as Jake Hill Conley
• Giovanni Ribisi as the Narrator

Reception

The film was generally well-received by critics; it has a 76/100 Metacritic rating. The New York Post heaped praise on the film; "It's hard to remember a film that mixes disparate, delicate ingredients with the subtlety and virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's brilliant The Virgin Suicides." The Philadelphia Inquirer outlined its attributes: "There's a melancholy sweetness here, a gentle humor that speaks to the angst and awkwardness of girls turning into women, and the awe of boys watching the transformation from afar."

Score

Main article: The Virgin Suicides (score)

Soundtrack

The film soundtrack featured songs by 1970s-era performers and by (90's) Sloan. A separate soundtrack album was released, featuring music from Heart and Todd Rundgren.

Mentioned in the credits (chronologically):

• "On the Horizon" by Sloan (album Navy Blues, 1998)
• "Can't Face Up" (credited "How many times") by Sloan (One Chord to Another, 1996)
• "The Air That I Breathe" by The Hollies (Hollies, 1974)
• "Magic Man" by Heart (Dreamboat Annie, 1976)
• "Crazy on You" by Heart (Dreamboat Annie, 1976)
• "Strange Magic" by Electric Light Orchestra (Face the Music, 1975)
• "Come Sail Away" by Styx (The Grand Illusion, 1977)
• "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan (Himself, 1971)
• "So Far Away" by Carole King (Tapestry, 1971)
• "The Lines You Amend" (credited "End It Peacefully") by Sloan (One Chord to Another, 1996)
• "A Dream Goes on Forever" by Todd Rundgren (Todd, 1974)
• "Ce Matin-là" by Air (Moon Safari, 1998)
• "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" by Al Green (Let's Stay Together, 1972)
• "Everything You've Done Wrong" by Sloan (One Chord to Another, 1996)
• "The Good in Everyone" by Sloan (One Chord to Another, 1996)
• "I'm Not in Love" by 10CC (The Original Soundtrack, 1975)
• "Hello, It's Me" by Todd Rundgren (Something/Anything?, 1972)
• "Run To Me" by the Bee Gees (To Whom It May Concern, 1972)

External links

• The Virgin Suicides at the Internet Movie Database
• The Virgin Suicides at AllRovi
• The Virgin Suicides at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Virgin Suicides at Box Office Mojo