The Virgin Suicides (1999) on Netflix
In a 1970s Detroit suburb, five Lisbon sisters live under their strict Catholic parents, and the neighborhood boys are obsessed with them. The youngest, Cecilia, survives a suicide attempt.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.2/10188,592 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Lisbon sisters, Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux and Cecilia, are raised in an upper-middle-class Detroit suburb by Ronald, a math teacher, and Sara, a devout Catholic homemaker whose rules govern the household. The neighborhood boys, now grown men, remember the five girls, who were kept from ordinary teenage life. The youngest, Cecilia, thirteen, cuts her wrist in the bathtub and lives. Her therapist, Dr. Horniker, tells her parents the attempt was a cry for help and that she would benefit from more contact with her peers, especially boys. Sara still refuses her daughters a normal social life. Ronald talks her into allowing one chaperoned party for Cecilia.
Cast
- Anthony DeSimoneas Chase Buell (as Anthony Desimone)
- Lee Kaganas David Barker
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Another script had already been written by Nick Gomez, but Muse Productions, which owned the rights, was dissatisfied with it; after the rights to the novel lapsed, Coppola pitched her manuscript to Muse executives Roberta and Chris Hanley, and Chris Hanley signed on to co-produce.
- Kirsten Dunst was sixteen when Coppola cast her as Lux, and Dunst later said she was nervous because it was her first role that was more of a “sexy” thing and she was unsure how large a part it would be, since much of it was without dialogue.
- French electronic music duo Air composed the score after Coppola decided she did not want 1970s hits but a consistent soundtrack suited to the film, and she found the band shared many of her suburban memories and experiences even though they grew up in a different country.
- The film was visually inspired by Peter Weir's 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock, with Edward Lachman as cinematographer and Coppola's brother Roman Coppola working as second-unit director.
- Jeffrey Eugenides visited the set for three days and, while supporting the film, told Dazed he had envisioned the girls as more of an entity than actual people, an effect he believed could have been achieved by casting different actresses to play the same character depending on whom they were speaking to.
