The Virgin Suicides

Synopsis

The Virgin Suicides is a 1999 American drama film written for the screen and directed by Sofia Coppola (in her feature directorial debut), co-produced by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, and Josh Hartnett. The film also features Scott Glenn, Michael Paré and Danny DeVito in minor roles, and a voice narration by Giovanni Ribisi.

Based on the 1993 best selling debut novel of the same name by American author Jeffrey Eugenides, the film tells of the lives of five teenage sisters in a middle-class suburb of Detroit during the late 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 home, which leads to their increasingly depressive and isolated behavior. Like the novel, the film is told from the perspective of a group of adolescent boys in the neighborhood who are fascinated by the girls.[a]

Known for being Sophia Coppola’s directorial debut, and featuring a soundtrack by French elctro-pop due AIR,  this is a disarmingly poetic vision of adolescence that it belongs in a category all of its own.