The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Synopsis

In suburban 1970’s America, five dreamy sisters are quarantined away from social interaction when their youngest sister commits suicide.

Their doomed fates indelibly mark the neighborhood boys who obsess over them.



Cast: James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Michael Paré, Scott Glenn, Danny DeVito, A. J. Cook, Hanna Hall, Leslie Hayman

Berlin Film Festival 2023 (Retrospective)

In a Detroit suburb in the mid-70s, the Catholic Lisbons are raising five daughters with a strict hand. When the youngest, Cecilia, 13, attempts suicide, her parents engage a psychotherapist. At his suggestion, they invite some of the neighbourhood boys over for a party. During the get-together, Cecilia succeeds in killing herself. The other sisters subsequently slip further from under the parental thumb. After Lux, 14, loses her virginity to a high school crush, the parents forbid the girls any outside contact. But their isolation has dramatic consequences … The film unfolds in flashbacks as the now-grown boys reminisce about the sisters they once loved, lending the tale of a tragic “spring awakening” the air of a melancholy requiem. Following in the steps of a long tradition of youthful tragedies, The Virgin Suicides counters any romanticising of adolescence. Despite its colourful pop culture appeal, the film exudes a sense of dread and looming calamity from the start, leading the audience into a parallel juvenile universe that is as magical as it is mysterious. Sofia Coppola’s stylistically confident direction gives perfect cinematic expression to the 90s zeitgeist of girl-ism.

Read about this film

Country: United States
Language: English
Color: Color
Runtime: 97 min.