Starring Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Kathleen Turner and James Woods
Written by Sofia Coppola and Jeffrey Eugenides
Directed by Sofia Coppola
Production Year 1999
Running Time 97 Minutes
We
are now in the fourth year of the film club and this first movie of
2013 is a milestone. We have screened many movies written by, edited by,
produced by and of course starring women but none until now has been
directed by one!
The Virgin Suicides is the debut feature of Sofia
Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. Her body of work includes
Lost In Translation and Marie Antoinette and she has a new film in
production - The Bling Ring - for release in 2013.
The Virgin
Suicides is based on a best-selling novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, an
academic whose novel Middlesex won the Pulitzer prize in 2003. The film
tells the story of the five mysterious Lisbon sisters, daughters of
strict parents in the town of Grosse Pointe Michigan. Their strange and
haunting tale is told from the perspective of four neighbourhood boys
who admire them from a distance.
The cast is a fine one with
Kathleen Turner and James Woods as the parents and Kirsten Dunst playing
the rebellious daughter Lux.
As screenwriter and director Sofia
Coppola imbues the story with a delicate and intriguing atmosphere,
recognisable from her follow up film Lost In Translation. She has yet to
equal the achievement of these two compelling and memorable early films
in her subsequent work.
