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The Virgin Suicides (Widescreen) | 
 enlarge | Director: Sofia Coppola
Actors: James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Michael Paré
Studio: Paramount Vantage
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 11.99
Buy New: CDN$ 6.90
You Save: CDN$ 5.09 (42%)
New (18) Used (10) from CDN$ 4.08
Rating:  212 reviews
Sales Rank: 8082
Format: Ntsc, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: PARD338174D
ISBN: 0792166825
UPC: 097363381747
EAN: 9780792166825
ASIN: B00003CXH1
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Release Date: July 17, 2001
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Item, factory Sealed. Buy direct from the U.S. and save! We only ship airmail to Canada (7-15 days).Caiman, les prix qu'on aime! Tous nos produits sont neufs. Envoi par avion des Etats-Unis
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From Amazon.com
Previously criticized for her marginal acting skills, Sofia Coppola made her directorial debut with The Virgin Suicides and silenced her detractors. No amount of coaching from her director father (Francis Coppola) or husband (Spike Jonze) could have guaranteed a film this assured, and in adapting Jeffrey Eugenides's novel, Coppola demonstrates the sensitivity and emotional depth that this material demands. Surely the pain of youth and public criticism found its way into her directorial voice; in the story of four sisters who self-destruct under the steady erosion of their youthful ideals, one can clearly sense Coppola's intimate connection to the inner lives of her characters. Played in a delicate minor key, the film is heartbreaking, mysterious, and soulfully funny, set in a Michigan suburb of the mid-1970s but timeless and universal to anyone who's been a teenager. The four surviving Lisbon sisters lost a sibling to suicide, and as its title suggests, the film will chart their mutual course to oblivion under the vigilance of repressive parents (Kathleen Turner and James Woods, perfectly cast). But The Virgin Suicides is more concerned with life in that precious interlude of adolescence, when the Lisbon girls are worshipped by the neighborhood boys, their notion of perfection epitomized by Lux (Kirsten Dunst) and her storybook love for high-school stud Trip (Josh Hartnett). Unfolding at the cusp of innocence and sexual awakening, and recalled as a memory, The Virgin Suicides is, ultimately, about the preservation of the Lisbon sisters by their own deaths--suspended in time, polished to perfection, and forever untainted by adulthood. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 207 more reviews...
Sofia's freshmen project is to be commended June 28, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A lot viewer's know that Sofia Coppola is not much of a great actress, but she seems to have inherited some of her father's talents in this film. Coppola knows how to get the best from her actors and a few "coming of age" films have the sensual, dream-like quality as this 1974 look at upper middle class American suburbia.
Written and directed by her, this mesmerizing account of adolescent sexual socialization (set in the posh suburbs of 1974 Detroit) has a bittersweet quality, yet is tragic as well. A group of young teenage boys come into contact with five bewitchingly beautiful teenage sisters in their affluent neighborhood. Each savor the short time they have with these girls, who are extremely overprotected by their devout Catholic parents (Woods and Turner).
Humorous, sensual, and highly evocative of "boy-meets-girl awkwardness" as seen through the boys' eyes, this film is a tribute to an American way of life not unlike "American Beauty". However, the dreaminess comes to an abrupt end... an "awakening", if you will... by the boys as they come to grips with a tragedy they are barely able to comprehend Sofia Coppola is an immensely talented filmmaker. She recreates the 70's era effortlessly, and allows the characters to all be real people instead of mere thumbnail sketches.
While this movie might lack a standard plot structure it succeeds dramatically in capturing the mood and feel of a certain generation. Obviously this movie will speak loudest to those who experience adolescence in the seventies but it also communicates strongly to all people recollecting that period of their lives. The great tragedy imparted in this movie is that of young beauty extinguished and the fruitless search to discover how this crime against nature could have occurred.
The cinematography is beautiful, never distracting but always full of genuinely real images, which served to offset the hallucination tone of the movie. There is a relaxed pace to the film, and I was drawn into the hazy, misty memories that make up the bulk of the story.
 THIS MOVIE IS AMAZING. November 4, 2006
The virgin suicides truly is an amazing movie with a perfect soundtrack. The viewer really does fall in love with the lisbon girls. This is a great film that has become a timeless classic that will spark conversations with fellow viewers about all the issues raised in the film.
Peace out and happy movie watching.
A haunting film that pales in comparison to the novel August 26, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having read Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, easily one of the most remarkable, haunting novels ever written, I would have said it was impossible to adapt the story to film - and, to some degree, I would have been right. Still, this film adaptation does as fine as job as is humanly possible to bring the ethereal Lisbon girls and the boys obsessed with them and their tragedy to life. It's an excellent, convoluted movie that defies convention and embraces the mystery of the tragedy, but believe me when I say that anyone remotely interested in this movie simply must read the original novel. This movie offers just the first taste of a surreal and tragic story that haunts the reader as much as the suicides haunt the lives of the boys still trying to understand the mystery of the Lisbon girls they adored in ways they could never have put into words. The true magic of the story isn't the sequence of tragic events that unfold; it's the indescribable, impenetrable, unseen world the girls lived in.
The novel tells the story from the outside looking in, through the eyes of the neighborhood boys who obsessed over the Lisbon girls, dreamed about them, and sought some form of access to their haunting inner world. The girls themselves were ethereal creatures spotted only sporadically, surreal ghosts of the lively, vibrant girls they should have been. A movie could never recreate such an abstract viewpoint - the only possible way to do it is to take us into the Lisbon house from the very start. We see what takes places within those walls, watch the interactions of the girls with their parents and one another, and that obviously takes away from some of the mystery inherent in the novel. Even still, we don't get to know the girls as well as we do in the novel. Only two stand out - Constance and Lux, while the other three are simply there, impossible to call by name or recognize by individual nature. That's the main weakness of this otherwise fine adaptation. There's a rushed sort of feeling to the story, and we really needed more time to know and understand Bonnie, Mary, and Therese.
Kirsten Dunst was a perfect choice to play the sensual free spirit that is Lux, while Hanna R. Hall is wonderful as the enigmatic Cecilia, the real lynchpin for the entire story. The film, quickly launching into the traumatic events of the story, doesn't really give us enough time to really see who Cecilia is, and that robs it of some of its heart-touching power, I'm afraid. James Woods plays the subdued role of Mr. Lisbon brilliantly, but Kathleen Turner just never really seemed to capture Mrs. Lisbon successfully enough for me. Then there's Josh Hartnett - not my favorite actor - in full 70s regalia. His character is an important link to Lux, but I think he gets too much time in the movie, to the point that it takes away from the true vision of the other boys' obsession with the girls. The conclusion, on the other hand, feels much too rushed. It's a dark and shocking scene that almost seems to happen in slow motion in the novel, but in the film it all happens so fast that you don't really have sufficient time to digest it. None of these things are a problem for those familiar with Eugenides' novel, but viewers who haven't read the book just won't get the full effect of the tragedy, I'm afraid.
 I've never been a 13 year-old girl July 18, 2004
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
In spite of my lack of qualifications--I'm a male and was 13 when Eisenhower lived in the White House--I would like to make a few comments about this movie. As I write this, more than 200 people have given plot summaries so I won't add one more.
I think the move is quite awful. If the movie was supposed to be about the feelings of the narrator then I might consider giving the movie an extra "star." Or if the movie was supposed to remind us that "normal" teens commit suicide, that might give it two stars, also.
But a movie should, in my opinion, be more than, say, a newspaper story that tell of a suicide of a teen with the always-asked question: WHY? A movie can get into the thoughts and feelings of the people, give insight into their anger or despair, and still show how parents or friends can be both clueless and a contributor to their problem.
But, except for the pitifully lame statement, "You don't know what it is like to be a 13-year-old girl," this movie does none of that.
Other movies, "Dead Poet's Society" and "Ordinary People", and probably others, have done a credible job with this topic. But this movie falls completely flat in my opinion.
In fact, the plot is so weak that a case could be made that the "suicides" were, in fact, murder. (...)
A sumptuous movie July 5, 2004
Sofia Coppola brings the book magically to life in a thoroughly engaging movie. Coppola not only connects with the tragic Lisbon girls but with the 70's as well, giving the movie a sumptuous feel like the songs of "Heart," whose "Magic Man" provides the perfect intro for Trip Fontaine. Even the cinematography recalls that time. To her credit, she doesn't try to unravel the mystery that surrounds these girls' suicides, leaving the viewer to sort out the details as the four teenage boys try to do so.I couldn't help but think that Eugenides and Coppola both drew from "Picnic at Hanging Rock." The book had an odd Victorian feel to it, given its setting in the 70's, and Coppola seemed to take the same loving approach to her characters. I thought she handled the cloistered lives of the Lisbon girls very well. James Woods and Kathleen Turner are almost unrecognizable as their parents, whose fundamental views are sharply at odds with the free-spirited time, which the girls so much want to take part in. Coppola treated the eventful Homecoming dance very well and the tragic events which follow. I especially liked the way she handled Trip, dramatically presenting him but not fawning over him as Eugenides did in the novel. This was a very impressive debut for Sofia Coppola and she followed it up well in "Lost in Translation." She has a remarkable sense of her characters and setting, due to an especially fine eye for detail.
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