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{{short description|1999 film directed by Sofia Coppola}}{{Use American English|date=January 2022}}









! scope="col"| Award! scope="col"| Date of ceremony! scope="col"| Category! scope="col"| Recipient(s)! scope="col"| Result! scope="col" class="unsortable" |{{Abbr|Ref.|Reference}}! scope="row" | Brit Awards! rowspan="2" scope="row" | Cannes Film Festival|C.I.C.A.E. Award|The Virgin Suicides|{{Nominated}}! scope="row" | Casting Society of America|November 1, 2000|Independent Feature Film Casting|Linda Phillips Palo, Robert McGee|{{Won}}! scope="row" | Chicago Film Critics Association|February 26, 2001! rowspan="5" scope="row" | Las Vegas Film Critics Society|Best Adapted Screenplay|{{Nominated}}|Best Supporting Actor|James Woods|{{Nominated}}|Best Cinematography|Edward Lachman|{{Nominated}}|Best Female Newcomer! scope="row" | MTV Movie Awards! scope="row" | Teen Choice Awards! scope="row" | Young Hollywood Awards|April 29, 2001|Best Director|Sofia Coppola|{{Won}}|! scope="row" | YoungStar Awards|November 19, 2000|Best Young Actress in a Drama Film|Kirsten Dunst|{{Nominated}}! scope="row" | Empire Awards! scope="row"| Chlotrudis Awards|2001|Best Adapted Screenplay|{{Nominated}}! scope="row" | Cahiers du Cinéma

factoids
name	The Virgin Suicides| image = VirginSuicidesPoster.jpg| caption = Theatrical release poster| director = Sofia Coppola | screenplay = Sofia Coppola	The Virgin Suicides|Jeffrey Eugenides{edih}	James Woods Kathleen Turner Kirsten Dunst Josh Hartnett Scott Glenn Michael Paré Danny DeVito {edih}	Air (French band)>Air| cinematography = Edward Lachman	James Lyons Melissa Kent {edih}	Paramount Classics American Zoetrope Muse Productions Eternity Pictures {edih}| distributor = Paramount Pictures	1999	19	Cannes Film Festival>Cannes	04	United States}}| runtime = 97 minutes| country = United States| language = English| budget = $6.1 million| gross = $10.4 millionThe Virgin Suicides (2000). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 10 July 2017.}}The Virgin Suicides is a 1999 American psychological romantic drama filmWEB, Chandler, Sarah, 2021-08-11, Movies Like Requiem For A Dream For Fans Of Psychological Dramas,weblink 2021-08-23, Looper.com, en-US, written and directed by Sofia Coppola in her feature directorial debut, and co-produced by her father, Francis Ford Coppola. It stars James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, A.J. Cook, and Josh Hartnett, with Scott Glenn, Michael Paré, Jonathan Tucker, and Danny DeVito in supporting roles.The film is based on the 1993 debut novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. The film follows the lives of five adolescent sisters in an upper-middle-class suburb of Detroit during 1975.Shot in 1998 in Toronto, it features an original score by the French electronic band Air. The film marked the first collaboration between Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst, whom Coppola later cast as the lead in several of her subsequent films.The Virgin Suicides premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release on April 21, 2000, in the United States, later expanding to a wide release in May 2000. The film earned largely positive reviews from critics, with the performances of the cast, Coppola's direction, visual style, and soundtrack receiving praise. It was also acclaimed for its lyrical representation of adolescent angst, and is recognized as a cult classic.WEB, Why The Virgin Suicides Is Still So Resonant Today, The Atlantic, 26 April 2018,weblink In 2015, the film ranked number 39 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Best High School Movies".MAGAZINE, 50 Best High School Movies,weblink 2019-11-02, Entertainment Weekly, en, Plot In the sleepy suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a group of neighborhood boys—now grown men—reflect upon their memories of the five Lisbon sisters, ages 13 to 17, in 1975. Unattainable due to their overprotective Catholic parents, math teacher Ronald Lisbon and his homemaker wife Sara, the girls—Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia—are enigmas who fill the boys' conversations and dreams.During the summer, the youngest sister, Cecilia, slits her wrist in a bathtub, but survives. Her therapist, Dr. Horniker, suggests to her parents that Cecilia's suicide attempt was a cry for help, and she would benefit from wider interaction with her peers, particularly boys. Despite this, Mrs. Lisbon is unwilling to allow her daughters a normal social life. Mr. Lisbon persuades her to allow a chaperoned party to make Cecilia feel better. However, after other boys make fun of Joe, a teenager with Down syndrome, Cecilia excuses herself and commits suicide by leaping from her second-story bedroom window, impaling herself onto a spiked iron fencepost below. Afterwards, the Lisbon parents watch over their remaining daughters even more closely. This further isolates the family and heightens the air of mystery surrounding the girls, particularly to the neighborhood boys.At the beginning of the new school year, Lux, the most rebellious sister, forms a secret, short-lived romance with Trip Fontaine, the school heartthrob. In hopes of becoming closer to Lux, Trip comes over to the Lisbon residence and watches television with the family. Trip persuades Mr. Lisbon to let him take Lux to the homecoming dance by promising to provide dates for Therese, Mary and Bonnie, and going as a group, to which Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon agree, with Mr. Lisbon chaperoning the dance. After winning homecoming King and Queen, Trip persuades Lux to ditch their group and take a walk on the football field, where they end up having sex. Afterwards, Lux falls asleep and Trip abandons her. At dawn, Lux wakes up alone and takes a taxi home, being met by her distraught parents.Due to Lux breaking curfew, the girls are all punished. By using light signals and sharing records over the telephone, they share their feelings with the group of neighbor boys. Lux rebels and becomes overtly promiscuous, having anonymous sexual encounters on her house's roof late at night with random boys and men; the neighborhood boys spy from across the street. After months of confinement, the sisters begin to leave notes outside for the boys. The girls eventually send a final note asking the boys to come over at midnight, ostensibly to escape from their house.When the boys finally arrive that night, they find Lux alone in the living room, smoking a cigarette. Thinking they are going to help the girls escape, the boys are invited inside by Lux to wait for her sisters, while she goes to start the car. Curious, the boys wander into the basement after hearing a noise and discover Bonnie's body hanging from the ceiling rafters. Horrified, the boys rush back upstairs, only to stumble across the body of Mary in the kitchen who put her head in the gas oven. The boys realize the girls killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact: Therese overdosed on sleeping pills upstairs, and Lux died of carbon monoxide poisoning by leaving the car engine running in the closed garage.Devastated by the suicides of all their children, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon quietly flee the neighborhood and are never seen again. Mr. Lisbon has a friend clean out the house and sell the family belongings in a yard sale; family photos and other mementos are put out with the trash and collected by the boys. The house is eventually sold to a young couple from the Boston area.Unsure of how to react to the events, the adults in the community go about their lives as if nothing traumatic happened, or even making fun of the suicides, but the boys cannot stop thinking about the Lisbon sisters and why they did what they did. Now adult men themselves, they acknowledge that they had loved the girls, and that the mystery surrounding their deaths will torment them for the rest of their lives. Cast {{Cast listing| James Woods as Mr. Lisbon Kathleen Turner as Mrs. Lisbon Kirsten Dunst as Lux Lisbon Josh Hartnett as Trip Fontaine A.J. Cook as Mary Lisbon Hanna R. Hall as Cecilia Lisbon Leslie Hayman as Therese Lisbon Chelse Swain as Bonnie Lisbon Anthony Desimone as Chase Buell Lee Kagan as David Barker Robert Schwartzman as Paul Baldino Noah Shebib as Parkie Denton Jonathan Tucker as Tim Weiner Michael Paré as adult Trip Fontaine Scott Glenn as Father Moody Danny DeVito as Dr. Horniker Hayden Christensen as Jake Hill Conley Giovanni Ribisi as Narrator }} Production Conception Coppola wrote the script for the film in 1998 after the project was already greenlit at another studio, adapting it from the source novel, of which she was a fan. Another script had already been written by Nick Gomez, but the production company that owned the rights at the time, Muse Productions, was dissatisfied with it.{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=89}} After the rights to the novel lapsed,WEB,weblinkweblink 2022-06-20, subscription, live, The Independent, Movies You Might Have Missed: Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, 14 June 2017, 9 July 2017, Richman, Darren, Coppola pitched her manuscript to Muse executives Roberta and Chris Hanley, the latter of whom signed on to co-produce.{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=89}} Coppola was inspired to write the film after reading the source novel: "I really didn't know I wanted to be a director until I read The Virgin Suicides and saw so clearly how it had to be done," she said. "I immediately saw the central story as being about what distance and time and memory do to you, and about the extraordinary power of the unfathomable."WEB,weblink Cinema Review, About the Production, The Virgin Suicides, July 17, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050507145944weblink">weblink May 7, 2005, dead, WEB,weblink Cinema Review, The Cast, The Virgin Suicides, July 17, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050507150120weblink">weblink May 7, 2005, dead, WEB,weblink Cinema Review, The Style, The Virgin Suicides, July 17, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050507145959weblink">weblink May 7, 2005, dead, WEB,weblink Cinema Review, The Music, The Virgin Suicides, July 17, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050507150027weblink">weblink May 7, 2005, dead, Casting Kathleen Turner was the first actor to sign on to the project, playing the Lisbon girls' oppressive mother; Turner had known Coppola after they appeared together in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). James Woods was cast opposite Turner as the passive father. Woods was given the script by Coppola's father, Francis, and was so impressed by the script and the character's "dark humor" that he agreed to play the role. For the part of Lux, Coppola auditioned numerous actresses, but had a "gut choice" of Kirsten Dunst, who was sixteen years old at the time of her casting.{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=91}} Reflecting on the role, Dunst said: "I was nervous. It was my first role that was more of a 'sexy' thing. I was also unsure about how large the role was gonna be, because a lot of it was without dialogue. When I met Sofia, I immediately knew that she would handle it in a delicate way... [she] really brought out the luminous aspect of the girls; she made them like ethereal angels, almost like they weren't really there."INTERVIEW, Interview (magazine), Interview, Dunst, Kirsten, Brendan Lemon, June 2000, The Cat's Meow! Kirsten Dunst,weblink 26 December 2016, Filming The Virgin Suicides was filmed in the summer of 1998 in Toronto, Ontario, standing in for suburban Detroit, Michigan,{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=91}} on a reported budget of $6 million.{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=90}} The shoot lasted roughly one month.{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=90}}Coppola was inspired by photographer Takashi Homma's photos of suburban Japan when choosing the filming locations; "I have always been struck by the beauty of banal details," she said, "and that is what suburban style is all about." The film's occasional use of stills and collages was intended to evoke the "fantasia" of adolescence. Cinematographer Edward Lachman shot the film. Coppola's brother, Roman Coppola, was the second-unit director on the film.{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=90}} Music French electronic music duo Air composed the musical score for The Virgin Suicides. Coppola did not want the hits from the 1970s, but rather a "consistent soundtrack" that suited the theme of the film, which led Air to be on board. She wanted to convey the theme of adolescence in the suburbs in the soundtrack. She found that Air shared many of her suburban memories and experiences even though they grew up in a different country.Air's score was released on February 23, 2000, by Virgin Records, to critical acclaim and has been considered as one of the "best film scores/rock albums".WEB, 21 February 2019, The 50 Best Film Scores of All Time,weblink 4 September 2019, Pitchfork, MAGAZINE, February 2010, Les 100 disques essentiels du rock français selon Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone France, fr, 18, 1764-1071, WEB, 8 January 2014, 61 Of The Greatest Film Soundtracks Ever,weblink 13 August 2019, NME, The film features songs by 1970s-era performers and five tracks from the 1990s by Sloan. A separate soundtrack album was released on March 28, 2000, featuring music from Todd Rundgren, Boston, Heart, Sloan, The Hollies, Al Green, Gilbert O'Sullivan, 10cc, Styx, and two tracks by Air (one previously recorded; one composed for the film).AV MEDIA, Emperor Norton, Various Artists, The Virgin Suicides, CD Soundtrack, 2000, B00027JY4E, EMN 7029, The deluxe edition of the film score was released in June 2015,WEB, Scheetz, Cameron, 12 June 2015, Win the new vinyl boxset commemorating The Virgin Suicides{{', 15th anniversary |url=https://film.avclub.com/win-the-new-vinyl-boxset-commemorating-the-virgin-suici-1798280697 |access-date=13 August 2019 |work=The A.V. Club}} and a vinyl re-issue was published by Rhino Records in 2020.WEB, Various Artists - The Virgin Suicides (Music From The Motion Picture) - Vinyl LP,weblink 2022-09-08, Rough Trade, 2020-08-12,weblink dead, Release The film had its world premiere at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival on May 19. It was given a limited release in the United States almost a year later on April 21, 2000.WEB,weblink FILM REVIEW; Evanescent Trees and Sisters In an Enchanted 1970's Suburb, The New York Times, A.O., Scott, 21 April 2000, 23 June 2017, The theatrical release would expand to a wide release in May 2000.NEWS,weblink The Washington Post, Plan Ahead, 28 April 2000, 16 July 2017, Reception Critical reception The Virgin Suicides received positive reviews from film critics, though some noted the film's discomforting thematic material.{{sfn|LoBrutto|Morrison|2012|p=92}} It holds an 80% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 108 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Virgin Suicides drifts with a dreamlike melancholy that may strike some audiences as tedious, but Sofia Coppola's feature debut is a mature meditation on disaffected youth."WEB,weblink The Virgin Suicides (1999), Rotten Tomatoes, 12 May 1999, 19 July 2019, On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 77 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".WEB,weblink The Virgin Suicides, 8 July 2017, Metacritic, Jeffrey Eugenides visited the set of the film for three days. He supported the film, but did offer a few critiques in an interview with Dazed. Eugenides envisioned the girls as more of an entity than actual people; he believed this idea could have been accomplished by casting different actresses to play the same character with each actress changing depending on whom they are speaking to.Graham Fuller of The New York Times gave the film a middling review, writing: "Ms. Coppola has made [...] a haunting metaphysical celebration of adolescence with the aura of a myth. Yet, on the surface, there is something wrong with this picture: how can a film in which a quintet of apparently normal girls commit suicide possibly be a celebration, and why would a filmmaker attempt to make it so unless she is uncommonly perverse?"WEB,weblink 16 April 2000, 9 July 2017, Fuller, Graham, The New York Times, FILM; Sofia Coppola's Second Chance, Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, praising Coppola's direction, the cast, and the production design, but also noting that while the film "is successfully venturesome... you need to know that it's also a real downer."WEB,weblink The Los Angeles Times, 'The Virgin Suicides' an Affecting, Somber Tale of Repressed Lives, 21 April 2000, 17 July 2017, Thomas, Kevin, Kevin Thomas (film critic), Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, and positively compared it to Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975): "[Coppola] has the courage to play it in a minor key," he notes. "She doesn't hammer home ideas and interpretations. She is content with the air of mystery and loss that hangs in the air like bitter poignancy."WEB,weblink The Chicago Sun-Times, RogerEbert.com, Roger, Ebert, Roger Ebert, 28 June 2017, The Virgin Suicides Movie Review, 5 May 2000, Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine noted the film's dreamy, childlike nature, writing: "The narrator speaks of youth as if it existed and still exists in a near-fugue state. In this respect, the film is as much a relevant view of adolescence and male/female relations as it is an act of remembrance. Scenes from the film (first kisses, gossiping about neighbors) are sinewy in nature and seem lifted from the pages of a lost photo album."WEB,weblink Slant Magazine, Gonzalez, Ed, 2 May 2001, The Virgin Suicides: Film Review, 28 December 2016, Critic Richard Crouse called the film "one of those rare occasions when a film surpasses the book it is based on," and included it in his book The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen (2003).BOOK, Crouse, Richard, Richard Crouse, The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen, 2003, ECW Press, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 978-1-554-90540-9, 237, The Virgin Suicides"> Accolades {| class"wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"|+Accolades for The Virgin Suicides
Brit Awards 2001>February 26, 2001	Brit Award for Soundtrack/Cast Recording>Soundtrack/Cast Recording	Air (French band)>Air|{{Nominated}}		LANGUAGE=EN-GB	ACCESS-DATE=2023-12-28,
May 23, 1999|Caméra d'Or|Sofia Coppola|{{Nominated}}	2013-10-14 >TITLE=OFFICIAL SELECTION 1999 : ALL THE SELECTION - FESTIVAL DE CANNES 2013 (INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL)	ACCESS-DATE=2023-12-28	ARCHIVE-DATE=2013-10-14,
	ACCESS-DATE=2023-12-28	LANGUAGE=EN,
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score>Best Original Score|Air|{{Nominated}}		URL=HTTP://WWW.CHICAGOFILMCRITICS.ORG/NOMINATE.HTML	ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20011005215429/HTTP://WWW.CHICAGOFILMCRITICS.ORG/NOMINATE.HTML, 2001-10-05,
December 21, 2000|Best Director	Sofia Coppola|{{Nominated}}	LAS VEGAS FILM CRITICS SOCIETYSIERRA AWARD WINNERS >URL=HTTP://WWW.LVFCS.ORG/SIERRA-AWARD-WINNERS.HTML	WEBSITE=WWW.LVFCS.ORG,
	Sofia Coppola|{{Nominated}}
2001 MTV Movie Awards>June 2, 2001|Best New Filmmaker|{{Won}}			URL=HTTP://THEENVELOPE.LATIMES.COM/EXTRAS/LOSTMIND/YEAR/2000/2000MTV.HTM	ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20070106130435/HTTP://THEENVELOPE.LATIMES.COM/EXTRAS/LOSTMIND/YEAR/2000/2000MTV.HTM, 2007-01-06,
2000 Teen Choice Awards>August 6, 2000|Choice Movie Actress|Kirsten Dunst|{{Nominated}}		DATE=2001-10-26	URL=HTTPS://WWW.HOLLYWOOD.COM/GENERAL/2000-TEEN-CHOICE-AWARDS-57162805	WEBSITE=TICKETS TO MOVIES IN THEATERS, BROADWAY SHOWS, LONDON THEATRE & MORE {{!, Hollywood.com |language=en-US}}
	ACCESS-DATE=2023-12-28	LANGUAGE=EN-US,
6th Empire Awards>February 19, 2001	Empire Award for Best Newcomer>Best Debut	Sofia Coppola|{{Nominated}}		URL=HTTP://WWW.EMPIREONLINE.CO.UK/FEATURES/EVENTS/AWARDS2001/NOMINEES/BESTDEBUT.HTML	ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20020620045030/HTTP://WWW.EMPIREONLINE.CO.UK/FEATURES/EVENTS/AWARDS2001/NOMINEES/BESTDEBUT.HTML, 2002-06-20,
	URL=HTTPS://CHLOTRUDIS.ORG/AWARDS/PAST-AWARDS/2001-7TH-ANNUAL-AWARDS/		WEBSITE=CHLOTRUDIS SOCIETY FOR INDEPENDENT FILM, en-US,
Cahiers_du_Cinéma%27s_Annual_Top_10_Lists#2000s> 2000	Cahiers du Cinéma's Annual Top 10 Lists#2000s>Top 10 Film Award|The Virgin Suicides	7th Place}}		ACCESS-DATE=2023-12-28, IMDb,

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD through Paramount Home Entertainment on December 19, 2000.WEB,weblink Cinema Review, The Virgin Suicides, 17 July 2017, Paramount Film Corp.,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180118124003weblink">weblink January 18, 2018, dead, On April 24, 2018, a remastered version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc via The Criterion Collection, featuring new interviews, a behind-the-scenes documentary, an essay, among other features.WEB,weblink The Virgin Suicides, The Criterion Collection, January 18, 2018, WEB,weblink Criterion Announces 'The Virgin Suicides' 4K Restoration, Approved by Ed Lachman and Sofia Coppola, Indiewire.com, Zack, Sharf, January 16, 2018, January 18, 2018, A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release from Criterion followed on July 5, 2022.WEB, Criterion Announces July Releases,weblink Blu-ray.com, 14 January 2024, 19 April 2022,

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

• BOOK, LoBrutto, Vincent, Morrison, Harriet R., The Coppolas: A Family Business, 2012, ABC-CLIO, 978-0-313-39161-3, Modern Filmmakers,

External links

• {{IMDb title}}
• {{AllMovie title}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
• {{Mojo title}}
• The Virgin Suicides: "They Hadn't Heard Us Calling", an essay by Megan Abbott at the Criterion Collection

{{Sofia Coppola}}{{Francis Ford Coppola}}{{Authority control}}