The Virgin Suicides | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Sofia Coppola |
Produced by |
Francis Ford Coppola Julie Costanzo Chris Hanley Dan Halsted |
Written by | Sofia Coppola |
Based on |
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides |
Starring |
James Woods Kathleen Turner Kirsten Dunst Josh Hartnett Michael Paré Scott Glenn Danny DeVito A.J. Cook |
Narrated by | Giovanni Ribisi |
Music by | Air |
Cinematography | Edward Lachman |
Edited by |
James Lyons Melissa Kent |
Production
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Distributed by | Paramount Classics |
Release date
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Running time
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97 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $6.1 million |
Box office | $10,409,377 |
The Virgin Suicides is a 1999 American drama 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 1993 best selling debut novel of the same name by American author Jeffrey Eugenides, the film tells of the brief lives of five teenage sisters in a middle class suburb near the outskirts of Detroit during the 1970s. After the youngest sister makes an initial attempt at suicide, her sisters are put under close scrutiny by their parents, eventually being confined to the household, which leads to their increasingly depressive and isolated behaviour.
In the suburbs of Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the mid-1970s, a group of neighborhood boys — now grown men — reflect upon their memories of the five Lisbon sisters, ages 13 to 17. Unattainable due to their Catholic and overprotective parents, math teacher Ronald and his homemaker wife, the girls — Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia — are the enigma that fill the boys' conversations and dreams.
During the summer, the youngest sister, Cecilia, slits her wrist in a bath. After her parents allow her sisters to throw a chaperoned basement party intended to make her feel better, she excuses herself and jumps out of her second story bedroom window, dying when she is impaled on an iron fence below. In the wake of her act, the Lisbon parents watch over their four remaining daughters even more closely. This further isolates the family from the community and heightens air of mystery about the girls to the neighborhood boys in particular.
At the beginning of the new school year in the fall, Lux forms a secret and short-lived romance with Trip Fontaine, the school heartthrob. Trip comes over one night to the Lisbon residence in hopes of getting closer to Lux and watches television with the family. Trip persuades Mr. Lisbon to allow him to take Lux to the upcoming Homecoming Dance by promising to provide dates for the other sisters. After winning king and queen, Trip persuades Lux to ditch the group and have sex on the football field. Afterwards, Lux falls asleep, and Trip abandons her. At dawn, Lux wakes up alone and has to take a taxi home.