The Virgin Suicides

"Beautiful, mysterious, haunting, invariably fatal. Just like life."

2000 1h 37m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 3,719

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

“Beautiful, mysterious, haunting, invariably fatal. Just like life.”

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Cast

Kirsten Dunst
Lux Lisbon
Josh Hartnett
Trip Fontaine
James Woods
Mr. Lisbon
Kathleen Turner
Mrs. Lisbon
Michael Paré
Adult Trip Fontaine
A.J. Cook
Mary Lisbon
Hanna Hall
Cecilia Lisbon
Leslie Hayman
Therese Lisbon

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Sofia Coppola
Writers: Sofia Coppola
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Sofia Coppola, shot by Edward Lachman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Melissa Kent shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett and James Woods carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Beautiful, mysterious, haunting, invariably fatal. Just like life.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0159097 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sofia Coppola directs. Edward Lachman behind the camera. Jean-Benoît Dunckel scores. Melissa Kent cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

126 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Sofia Coppola, shot by Edward Lachman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Melissa Kent shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett and James Woods carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Beautiful, mysterious, haunting, invariably fatal. Just like life.".
7IMDB entry: tt0159097 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 19 themes, including "suicide", "based on novel or book", "michigan", "suicide attempt".
9Released under 47 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Edward Lachman
Original score: Jean-Benoît Dunckel
Editing: Melissa Kent
Production design: Jasna Stefanovic
Costume design: Nancy Steiner
Makeup / hair: Kathleen Graham
Sound: Richard Beggs
Runtime: 97 min · 1h 37m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.78:1 (16:9)
Status: Released
Budget: $6,000,000
Box office: $10,409,377
Return: 173% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Virgin Suicides (2000)

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Sofia Coppola

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Community reviews

What people are saying

PimplyChicken2017-06-25
★ 7/10
A very different movie, enjoyable and engrossing but at the end of it you are left wondering what the point was. Is there a moral here? A life lesson? Or is the movie just telling a quirky story? I'm still not sure. This movie is well acted and is never boring, but it is puzzling.
Wuchak2019-06-03
★ 8/10
Artistic, profound, amusing, tragic, haunting coming-of-age in the 70s A 13 year-old girl from a Catholic family in a Detroit suburb commits suicide during the late 70s and its effects are shown over the course of the next year in the lives of her four sisters (e.g. Kirsten Dunst), her parents (James Woods & Kathleen Turner) and the boys of the community. Josh Hartnett is on hand as the school stud who’s interested in Lux (Dunst). "The Virgin Suicides" (1999) was Sofia Coppola’s debut film based on the book by Jeffrey Eugenides; she would go on to great success with “Lost in Translation” (2003) and the underrated “Marie Antoinette” (2006). To be expected, Sofia’s style is similar to her father, as well as Peter Weir, but maybe more focused on feminine themes. The tone of the movie is artsy and deep, but not without a sense of humor. It’s haunting, mysterious, beautiful and impenetrable, reminiscent of Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975). There’s also a great 70’s soundtrack featuring well-placed songs by The Hollies, Heart, Styx, Todd Rundgren and 10cc. The subtext on parental legalism brings to mind “Footloose” (1984), but it’s clear that the blame can’t be placed solely at the feet of the parents, who are certainly overprotective but also clearly loving to a degree. Cecilia’s rash actions are the catalyst and the domino effect comes into play coupled with the oppression of stifling legalism and perhaps passive revenge. At the end of the day, though, it comes down to just a stupid decision by teenagers. Yet the movie’s about way more than suicide and its causes. It’s about coming-of-age, seeking identity & a voice, coming-of-death and the haunting reflections of those that remain. The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes and was shot in Toronto. GRADE: A-/B+
CinemaSerf2023-08-06
★ 7/10
Set amidst 1970s Detroit suburbia, this follows the ultimately tragic lives of five sisters who live with their teacher father (James Woods) and rather possessive mother (Kathleen Turner). It's narrated by one of their neighbours, a youth whom - along with his friends - has a bit of a crush on the girls. Disaster strikes early on when "Cecilia" manages to impale herself on the garden fence and what now ensues follows the family's quirkily poignant and entertaining evolution from this event. Things eventually come to an head when the girls plead with their parents to be allowed to go to a school dance whereupon "Lux" (Kirsten Dunst) and her all-American boyfriend "Trip" (Josh Hartnett) do the deed! Arriving home late, and alone, this causes ructions within the family and drives the young girl off the rails with ghastly consequences. There's a lot of nuance here. The performances from Turner, Dunst and a rather under-stated one from an increasingly effective Woods all help build this to a conclusion that is sadly, in my view, all a bit rushed. The effects of the isolation and loneliness on the all-but-incarcerated girls is there for us to see, but not really to appreciate fully enough and I felt that a shame. There is also quite a potent aesthetic here - the visuals offer us a subtle reinforcement of stereotype, ageing, maturity, comedy and indifference and I could have done with some meat on the bones of the actual story, the film gets better after each viewing.