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From Amazon.co.uk
Sophia Coppola's alternately dreamy and unsettling film about five suburban sisters who all mysteriously kill themselves (the voice-over tells you as much in the first five minutes) casts a witchy spell that lingers like drugstore perfume on a hot day. Beautifully adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides' icily perfect novel (perhaps the best, if not only, work of fiction narrated exclusively in the first-person plural), the 1970s-set film is constructed as the collective memory of the neighbourhood boys who worshipped the beautiful Lisbon girls, blonde sylph-like teen siblings whose beauty and self-destruction still haunts and perplexes the narrators, now grown men.
Why did they do it? Maybe because their Catholic mother (Kathleen Turner, magnificently clenched) locked them all up when near-youngest daughter Lux (the exquisite Kirsten Dunst) stayed out all night after the prom. Maybe it was due to a kind of pubertal feminine hysteria, set off by the first suicide of the youngest daughter Cecilia. Maybe they were infected by a more general malaise (the film fairly teams with images of dying elm trees, infested lakes and fetid nastiness). Or maybe they will just never know what it's like, in the words of Cecilia, to be a 13-year-old girl.
Coppola has a canny eye for 1970s kitsch and the tawdry, touching magic totems of girlhood (tampons, bright bikinis, half-used make-up) and coaxes terrific deadpan performances both from the younger cast and the veterans. (James Woods as the nerdy Lisbon patriarch is as delightfully cast against type as Turner.) For all the languid gloom, there is great wit in the observation of 1970s decor and playful touches abound: airbrushed flashbacks like vintage Timotei commercials; inserts to reveal Lux has the name of her date magic markered on her knickers; teeth and eyes that sparkle unnaturally with post-production tricks. The soundtrack hits just the right wistful ironic note with a mix of period tunes by Todd Rungren, Gilbert O'Sullivan and the like, complemented by the electronica of French pop band Air (whose standalone efforts for the film are also available on a separate CD. A film as unforgettable as first love. --Leslie Felperin
Product Description
The debut film from Sofia Coppola (daughter of 'Godfather' director Francis), 'The Virgin Suicides' tells the story of a group of teenage boys and their fascination with the Lisbon girls, five beautiful sisters, kept behind closed doors by an over-protective mother, who each eventually commit suicide. Using music by French popsters Air, a vivid recreation of 1970s suburban details, and Edward's Lachman's sun-drenched photography, Coppola's film bathes the tragic events it depicts in a magical, elegiac atmosphere.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Having read Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, easily one of the most remarkable, haunting novels ever written, I would have said it was impossible to adapt the story to film - and, to some degree, I would have been right. Still, this film adaptation does as fine as job as is humanly possible to bring the ethereal Lisbon girls and the boys obsessed with them and their tragedy to life. It's an excellent, convoluted movie that defies convention and embraces the mystery of the tragedy, but believe me when I say that anyone remotely interested in this movie simply must read the original novel. This movie offers just the first taste of a surreal and tragic story that haunts the reader as much as the suicides haunt the lives of the boys still trying to understand the mystery of the Lisbon girls they adored in ways they could never have put into words. The true magic of the story isn't the sequence of tragic events that unfold; it's the indescribable, impenetrable, unseen world the girls lived in.
The novel tells the story from the outside looking in, through the eyes of the neighborhood boys who obsessed over the Lisbon girls, dreamed about them, and sought some form of access to their haunting inner world. The girls themselves were ethereal creatures spotted only sporadically, surreal ghosts of the lively, vibrant girls they should have been. A movie could never recreate such an abstract viewpoint - the only possible way to do it is to take us into the Lisbon house from the very start. We see what takes places within those walls, watch the interactions of the girls with their parents and one another, and that obviously takes away from some of the mystery inherent in the novel. Even still, we don't get to know the girls as well as we do in the novel.
... Read more ›4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Jenny J.J.I.
Format:DVD
A lot viewer's know that Sofia Coppola is not much of a great actress, but she seems to have inherited some of her father's talents in this film. Coppola knows how to get the best from her actors and a few "coming of age" films have the sensual, dream-like quality as this 1974 look at upper middle class American suburbia.
Written and directed by her, this mesmerizing account of adolescent sexual socialization (set in the posh suburbs of 1974 Detroit) has a bittersweet quality, yet is tragic as well. A group of young teenage boys come into contact with five bewitchingly beautiful teenage sisters in their affluent neighborhood. Each savor the short time they have with these girls, who are extremely overprotected by their devout Catholic parents (Woods and Turner).
Humorous, sensual, and highly evocative of "boy-meets-girl awkwardness" as seen through the boys' eyes, this film is a tribute to an American way of life not unlike "American Beauty". However, the dreaminess comes to an abrupt end... an "awakening", if you will... by the boys as they come to grips with a tragedy they are barely able to comprehend Sofia Coppola is an immensely talented filmmaker. She recreates the 70's era effortlessly, and allows the characters to all be real people instead of mere thumbnail sketches.
While this movie might lack a standard plot structure it succeeds dramatically in capturing the mood and feel of a certain generation. Obviously this movie will speak loudest to those who experience adolescence in the seventies but it also communicates strongly to all people recollecting that period of their lives. The great tragedy imparted in this movie is that of young beauty extinguished and the fruitless search to discover how this crime against nature could have occurred.... Read more ›
Written and directed by her, this mesmerizing account of adolescent sexual socialization (set in the posh suburbs of 1974 Detroit) has a bittersweet quality, yet is tragic as well. A group of young teenage boys come into contact with five bewitchingly beautiful teenage sisters in their affluent neighborhood. Each savor the short time they have with these girls, who are extremely overprotected by their devout Catholic parents (Woods and Turner).
Humorous, sensual, and highly evocative of "boy-meets-girl awkwardness" as seen through the boys' eyes, this film is a tribute to an American way of life not unlike "American Beauty". However, the dreaminess comes to an abrupt end... an "awakening", if you will... by the boys as they come to grips with a tragedy they are barely able to comprehend Sofia Coppola is an immensely talented filmmaker. She recreates the 70's era effortlessly, and allows the characters to all be real people instead of mere thumbnail sketches.
While this movie might lack a standard plot structure it succeeds dramatically in capturing the mood and feel of a certain generation. Obviously this movie will speak loudest to those who experience adolescence in the seventies but it also communicates strongly to all people recollecting that period of their lives. The great tragedy imparted in this movie is that of young beauty extinguished and the fruitless search to discover how this crime against nature could have occurred.... Read more ›
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
...of this film. Being a teenager, i can understand how my review may not be helpful in convincing you to buy this. But hear me out anyway. Firstly, who watches the credits all the way through on movies? very few i'd imagine. This was the first movie that i watched all the credits for, simply because i couldn't move, it was one of the purest, most beautiful and unapologetic films i have ever seen in my life.
In a similar way to American Beauty and Pulp Fiction, the film isn't really about anything in terms of epic story, but is simply about the lives of the characters, and their emotions (anyone who says that human lives have a plot is obviously lying) and thus touches you all the more through its lack of story in the traditional sense.
I do apologise but i must cut my review short as someone else neeeds to use the phone line. Buy this film people, it is all i can say.
In a similar way to American Beauty and Pulp Fiction, the film isn't really about anything in terms of epic story, but is simply about the lives of the characters, and their emotions (anyone who says that human lives have a plot is obviously lying) and thus touches you all the more through its lack of story in the traditional sense.
I do apologise but i must cut my review short as someone else neeeds to use the phone line. Buy this film people, it is all i can say.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By mummy spoon
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I definately liked this film and I'm glad I bought it, but I did feel a little confused and bewildered when it had finished.
I'm not going to reveal the story but the title pretty much says it all.
We see the story of five teenage sisters tragic lives unfold and hear from confused friends who witnessed it.
Virgin Suicides has a very haunting feel to it, it's almost like a dream, and as I said, though I enjoyed it, the ending was very abrupt and didn't feel like a proper conclusion, it reminded me of one of those odd little short films that are very arty and nice to watch but have no real point to them.
So if you like these type of indie films and don't mind not knowing everything then it's great but if you prefer the typical Hollywood fodder which is all neatly wrapped up at the end then this one might frustrate you .
I'm not going to reveal the story but the title pretty much says it all.
We see the story of five teenage sisters tragic lives unfold and hear from confused friends who witnessed it.
Virgin Suicides has a very haunting feel to it, it's almost like a dream, and as I said, though I enjoyed it, the ending was very abrupt and didn't feel like a proper conclusion, it reminded me of one of those odd little short films that are very arty and nice to watch but have no real point to them.
So if you like these type of indie films and don't mind not knowing everything then it's great but if you prefer the typical Hollywood fodder which is all neatly wrapped up at the end then this one might frustrate you .
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3.7 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
High School Angst
Sofia Coppola does it for me every time.
This is not a film to enjoy but one to appreciate. The acting is marvelous, the script is literate and the pace brisk (not what one... Read more
This is not a film to enjoy but one to appreciate. The acting is marvelous, the script is literate and the pace brisk (not what one... Read more
Published 5 months ago by mr blue
5.0 out of 5 stars
Does the book justice
Eugenides' novel is easily one of my favourite books, and this film (which I have just watched for the first time) really does it justice: dreamlike, surreal and infused with... Read more
Published 11 months ago by wordfan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great movie based on a great book
A good attempt at adapting such an excellent novel. Though typical Coppola, it is one of her more believable movies with an excellent cast. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ellinor
4.0 out of 5 stars
WONDER YEARS
I have not read the novel so i guess i did not have that to bias my opinion of Virgin Suicides.First things first Airs soundtrack to this movie is exceptional,i place it up there... Read more
Published 23 months ago by mister joe
3.0 out of 5 stars
early-flowering lust
Like an number of other reviewers here, I did not feel that the movie matched up to the novel--despite its close adherence to its source. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2010 by R. D. O'Neill
5.0 out of 5 stars
the virgin suicides review
Never before has a product changed my life in the way that this one has.....it arrived in brilliant condition without too much of a wait upon delivery, the economic crisis seems a... Read more
Published on 2 April 2010 by Peter Mclaren
5.0 out of 5 stars
A collectors ''must have''-haunting and great.
With this all star cast,Kathleen turner is very ''serial mom'' but in a more sinister way,with James woods as her hen pecked,senile husband. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2010 by Ms. T. A. Hall
2.0 out of 5 stars
I don't get it
Maybe I am missing something. The narrator spends the whole film going on about how 'there are so many questions' and how 'no one will ever know the answers'. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2009 by Random
3.0 out of 5 stars
pepermunt
worthwhile theme, though scarcely original, but the ending was poorly managed, with no tension and a highly improbable and sudden conclusion
Published on 19 Mar 2009 by benik
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
I agree entirely with a previous review which stated that the film works very well as a teenage romance story, but is woefully inadequate as a commentary on suicide. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2009 by Mr. S. A. Brown
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