The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Moving on from the French New Wave, the next film I saw was The Virgin Suicides (1999), written and directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst.

Moving on from the French New Wave, the next film I saw was The Virgin Suicides (1999), written and directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst. Although I’m not really a fan of Sofia’s—her movies Marie Antoinette (2006) and The Bling Ring (2013) are beautiful yet dull—this might be my favorite film of hers. Based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (which I have not read; don’t @ me), it portrays the deaths of the five Lisbon girls in mid-’70s Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Growing up under the strict rule of their Catholic mother, these sisters are a mystery to the neighborhood kids, when really they’re just lounging around as middle-class white girls tend to do. Like Sofia’s other films, aesthetics are important: their wardrobes make you crave the ‘70s, while also show the level of freedom they’re allowed to experience. Watch for Kirsten and gang in a dreamy, yet definitely somber, performance. Watch The Virgin Suicides on Kanopy.