Cannes Film review: 'The Virgin Suicides'
One of the most purely entertaining films in the festival, but in its final section also morphing into one of the more subtly disturbing, "The Virgin Suicides" is a knockout directorial debut by Sofia Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford. This very self-assured, well-executed film should win a significant distribution deal with no trouble and go on to a Sterling North American release. Foreign markets will likewise be perky.
Deserving of the Camera d'Or, Coppola is not the only sibling of a celebrated filmmaker to flop in her first acting role and rebound one day as a director (see Anjelica Huston and the long-forgotten "A Walk with Love and Death", directed her by her legendary dad, John). Indeed, plenty of time has passed since "The Godfather Part III", when critics and audiences made young actress Sofia the fall-girl for a movie that failed to meet expectations for many reasons.
Adapting herself the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, Coppola as director has a keen eye for the visual possibilities in the tame environs of 1970s suburbia, both for sparkling comedy and sinister moodiness, but her attention to sound, pacing and the performances are evidence that she's learned a lot from being mentored by one of the all-time masters of the cinema.
Set in Grosse Pointe, Mich., the film is about the strange demise of five pretty teenage sisters, ages 13-17, which we learn at the outset was a neighborhood calamity that permanently scarred the boys they attracted. Unfolding more or less in sequence, with occasional insight and information from one of the obsessed lads as an adult narrator (Giovanni Ribisi), "Virgin" sticks with the loss of the boy's innocence angle but also wonderfully captures the details of the girls' life back then.
In well-executed vignettes usually centered on romance and longing, we are introduced to and get to know the seemingly perfect Lisbon siblings -- Cecilia (Hanna Hall), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Mary (A.J. Cook), Therese (Leslie Hayman), and Lux (Kirsten Dunst). Their father is the conservative math teacher (James Woods), and mom (Kathleen Turner) is a pious housewife who follows his lead.
At first, the focus is on youngest Cecilia, who cuts her wrists but doesn't die. Never showing violence or anything seriously unpleasant, the uneasy mood is in place from the start, with the humor resulting from the dead-on recreation of the times and the usual stupid stares and fumbled advances of personality-forming high schoolers with crushes. In the midst of a party at the Lisbon home, Cecilia tries again and succeeds.
Danny DeVito and Scott Glenn have short scenes as the school psychiatrist and family minister, but the grieving period is over fast. With the start of the school year, the girls pretend nothing has happened, while the boys (Jonathan Tucker, Athony DeSimone, Noah Shebib, Robert Scwartzman, Lee Kagan) pour over Cecilia's diary and learn that the girls always have the upper hand when it comes to the opposite sex.
We never get inside the real mystery of what causes the rarely-seen-apart girls to give up on life. But when the story shifts to Lux's lovelife, she provides a half-open window to the rest. Lux becomes the prey of cool jock Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), but he has to work to get her attention. Struck to the core with true love, he cleans up his act and gets the parents to let all four girls go on a group date to the homecoming dance.
Well on her way to experiencing the fleshly pleasures of love, Lux leads the girls in a liberating spree that is marvelously evocative (with the unexpected help of a vintage pop anthem by Styx). But when Lux stays out all night, mother Lisbon cracks down hard, taking the girls out of school and imposing harsh penalties, including the tossing of Lux's prized LPs into the fireplace.
Trapped in the house, the four sisters emerge to try to save a diseased, but beloved tree from being cut down. The ominous atmosphere thickens. Tragic but muted, the resolution leaves one uneasy, and somewhat in awe of the filmmaker for so deftly shifting emotions and allowing the viewer to puzzle over the ambiguities without insisting on a precise explanation of what one has just seen.
The Virgin Suicides
American Zoetrope presents
A Muse production
In association with Eternity Pictures
CREDITS:
Writer-director:Sofia Coppola
Producers:Francis Coppola, Julie Costanzo, Dan Halsted, Chris Hanley
Executive producers:Fred Fuchs, Willi Baer
Director of photography:Edward Lachman
Production designer:Megan Less
Editor:Jim Lyons
Music:Air
Costume designer:Nancy Steiner
Casting:John Buchan
Color/stereo
CAST:
Mr. Lisbon:James Woods
Mrs. Lisbon:Kathleen Turner
Lux Lisbon:Kirsten Dunst
Trip Fontaine:Josh Hartnett
Dr. Hornicker:Danny DeVito
Father Moody:Scott Glenn
Running time -- 93 minutes...
Deserving of the Camera d'Or, Coppola is not the only sibling of a celebrated filmmaker to flop in her first acting role and rebound one day as a director (see Anjelica Huston and the long-forgotten "A Walk with Love and Death", directed her by her legendary dad, John). Indeed, plenty of time has passed since "The Godfather Part III", when critics and audiences made young actress Sofia the fall-girl for a movie that failed to meet expectations for many reasons.
Adapting herself the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, Coppola as director has a keen eye for the visual possibilities in the tame environs of 1970s suburbia, both for sparkling comedy and sinister moodiness, but her attention to sound, pacing and the performances are evidence that she's learned a lot from being mentored by one of the all-time masters of the cinema.
Set in Grosse Pointe, Mich., the film is about the strange demise of five pretty teenage sisters, ages 13-17, which we learn at the outset was a neighborhood calamity that permanently scarred the boys they attracted. Unfolding more or less in sequence, with occasional insight and information from one of the obsessed lads as an adult narrator (Giovanni Ribisi), "Virgin" sticks with the loss of the boy's innocence angle but also wonderfully captures the details of the girls' life back then.
In well-executed vignettes usually centered on romance and longing, we are introduced to and get to know the seemingly perfect Lisbon siblings -- Cecilia (Hanna Hall), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Mary (A.J. Cook), Therese (Leslie Hayman), and Lux (Kirsten Dunst). Their father is the conservative math teacher (James Woods), and mom (Kathleen Turner) is a pious housewife who follows his lead.
At first, the focus is on youngest Cecilia, who cuts her wrists but doesn't die. Never showing violence or anything seriously unpleasant, the uneasy mood is in place from the start, with the humor resulting from the dead-on recreation of the times and the usual stupid stares and fumbled advances of personality-forming high schoolers with crushes. In the midst of a party at the Lisbon home, Cecilia tries again and succeeds.
Danny DeVito and Scott Glenn have short scenes as the school psychiatrist and family minister, but the grieving period is over fast. With the start of the school year, the girls pretend nothing has happened, while the boys (Jonathan Tucker, Athony DeSimone, Noah Shebib, Robert Scwartzman, Lee Kagan) pour over Cecilia's diary and learn that the girls always have the upper hand when it comes to the opposite sex.
We never get inside the real mystery of what causes the rarely-seen-apart girls to give up on life. But when the story shifts to Lux's lovelife, she provides a half-open window to the rest. Lux becomes the prey of cool jock Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), but he has to work to get her attention. Struck to the core with true love, he cleans up his act and gets the parents to let all four girls go on a group date to the homecoming dance.
Well on her way to experiencing the fleshly pleasures of love, Lux leads the girls in a liberating spree that is marvelously evocative (with the unexpected help of a vintage pop anthem by Styx). But when Lux stays out all night, mother Lisbon cracks down hard, taking the girls out of school and imposing harsh penalties, including the tossing of Lux's prized LPs into the fireplace.
Trapped in the house, the four sisters emerge to try to save a diseased, but beloved tree from being cut down. The ominous atmosphere thickens. Tragic but muted, the resolution leaves one uneasy, and somewhat in awe of the filmmaker for so deftly shifting emotions and allowing the viewer to puzzle over the ambiguities without insisting on a precise explanation of what one has just seen.
The Virgin Suicides
American Zoetrope presents
A Muse production
In association with Eternity Pictures
CREDITS:
Writer-director:Sofia Coppola
Producers:Francis Coppola, Julie Costanzo, Dan Halsted, Chris Hanley
Executive producers:Fred Fuchs, Willi Baer
Director of photography:Edward Lachman
Production designer:Megan Less
Editor:Jim Lyons
Music:Air
Costume designer:Nancy Steiner
Casting:John Buchan
Color/stereo
CAST:
Mr. Lisbon:James Woods
Mrs. Lisbon:Kathleen Turner
Lux Lisbon:Kirsten Dunst
Trip Fontaine:Josh Hartnett
Dr. Hornicker:Danny DeVito
Father Moody:Scott Glenn
Running time -- 93 minutes...
- 5/20/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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