THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
US, 1999, 97 minutes, Colour.
Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Josh Hartnett, Danny De Vito, Michael Pare, Scott Glenn, Jonathan Tucker.
Directed by Sofia Coppola.
The Lisbon family are Catholics in 1975, so their five daughters’ suicides would have been considered grimly at that time, especially in terms of sin. Scott Glenn plays the parish priest who comes round to the house to offer comfort. The father, James Woods, is watching sport on television so that he will not have to go deeply into his grief. The mother, Kathleen Turner, sits alone in her room, in disbelief. The priest again offers comfort and does tell her that he considered her daughter’s (the first of the suicides) as an accident and so Catholic burial is in order. He speaks to the girls and tells him he is available if they want to talk about anything. Sympathetically functional sequences – no miracles.
Based on a novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, the film dramatizes the lives of the Lisbon daughters, led by Kirsten Dunst. There are various boyfriends in the background, but the screenplay ponders the lives and death wishes of these girls and the follow through in suicide.
It was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter, Sofia, who had appeared in Godfather 3, but whose directing career includes Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst, Somewhere and The Bling Ring
1. A film of 1999, the transition from the 20th to the 21st century? Transition in family life, community, American society, values and morals?
2. The 1975 setting, looking back a quarter of a century to this decade? Re-assessment, the issues, questions?
3. The American town, the American family, home, school, church…? Affluent?
4. Sofia Coppola and her career? Adapting this story? The work of Jeffrey Eugenides? Her own family background and experience? Cinema experience in her family? Her perspectives and interests? A woman identifying with the daughters?
5. The title, the shock value, the possibility of this kind of occurrence in the one family, plausible?
6. The introduction to the town, the echo of films like Blue Velvet and the street, the houses, cruising along the streets? The Lisbons and their home? Audience and ordinary expectations from this introduction?
7. The voice-over, Tim and his perspective, the adolescent, the sexual interest and attraction, involvement? The boys, their curiosity? Tim’s tone of voice? The boys gathering, their discussions, their anecdotes? The boy who boasted of finding Cecilia in the bathroom?
8. Trip, his voice-over, from the older Trip, 25 years perspective, his strong memories, callow memories and callow behaviour? At the end and his being in an institution?
9. The Lisbon family, the strong personality of the parents, ordinary, the father and his easier approach, teaching geometry, the scenes of his classes, explaining planes and wing spans? His wife being stricter, clothes, the cross around her neck? The Catholic background? The young boy’s visit and the impact? The decision about the party, the father and his showing the boys the planes? The awkwardness of the party, the girls and their talk? The Downs boy coming in, dressed for the party, the boys encouraging him, partly ridiculing him? The response of the girls?
10. Cecilia and her wrists, going upstairs, throwing herself out the window, impaling herself? The reaction at the party? The subsequent grief? The visit of Father Moody, the father watching television, detached from reality, talking about the sport?
11. The father at school, detached with the teacher, meeting Trip, Trips request about the dense, Trip coming to the family, to the meal, watching TV and the mother with the TV Guide and supervising the programs? Trip’s request with the daughters present, the wife’s reaction? Yielding? His being the supervisor?
12. The portrait of the mother, a strictness, grace before meals, silent grief, the visit of the priest, his reassuring her that the death would be listed as an accident? Her attitude towards parties, towards dancing, towards girls going in cars, accepting that girls go with the group, buying their dresses, altering them for more modesty? Her burning Lux’s records?
13. Cecilia, slitting her wrists, her being saved, in hospital, going to the psychiatrist, the Rohrshach blots, responses, the psychiatrist saying this was a cry for help? Conscious of her wrists, taking of the bandages, at the party, leaving it, her death?
14. The aftermath, the parents being calm, the visit of the priest, talking with the father, with the mother? Talking with the girls saying that he was available if they wanted to talk? The pulling out of the fence? The neighbours and their observing? The girls and their grief?
15. The five girls, the introduction, their names, ages, descriptions? At home, the meals, at school? The importance of the dance? Lux and Trip as king and queen? The aftermath of Lux’s night out, their being confined, the contact with the boys and the playing of records through the phone? The effect of this confinement?
16. Lux, her name, light? Vivacious? The boy visitor, kissing him? Finding him in the bathroom? Her room? The party, the aftermath? Her cheerfulness with Trip, talking, meeting, driving? The dance, dress, under the table, kissing, the king and queen of the prom? The night in the oval? Trip’s disappearance, getting the taxi home? At home, the restrictions, the rest of the girls, the burning of the records? Hatred towards Trip, sending the message that she hated him? The effect on her self-image?
17. The boys, the boy with the strange walk, falling in love and jumping from his window? the boy who said he found Cecilia? The boy visiting for the meal and the father enthusing about geometry? His going to the bathroom? The group, Tim’s place, narrator, the other boys, the sexy come-ons, the smaller boy and his talk with the sister at the locker?
18. Trip, confident, with Lux, not being able to follow through, the perspective of 25 years?
19. The plan, for the girls to go out, Lux and her initiatives, the boys going to the house, Lux meeting them, the girl hanging in the basement, the response and escape? The sister dying of the overdose, the sister with her head in the oven, Lux and her killing herself in the car in the garage?
20. The television interviewer, the question is, the mother’s reaction? The dispersing of the action with sequences of the commentator on the television, social issue of suicide?
21. The people of the town, the gossiping, they’re watching the television, the reaction, the parents watching with their sons?
22. The aftermath party, the famous of asphyxiation, the Surrealism of the party and the visuals?
23. The aftermath, everybody returning to normal, the Lisbon’s moving?
24. The audiences immersed in the world of the Lisbons, of the sisters, their strict parents, repressing their children, the children needing to burst out, especially Lux, the parents not understanding their children? The disastrous family life?
