Content warning: This story mentions suicide.
Sofia Coppola has been making films for the past 25 years, focusing on the themes of femininity, loneliness, and youth. Since the release of her most recent film, Priscilla, I have taken it upon myself to rewatch my first and favorite Sofia Coppola film and gush about it.
Coppola made her major directorial debut in 1999 with her book-to-film adaptation of The Virgin Suicides. The film follows men reflecting on their teenage years and the lives of the five Lisbon sisters in a suburban town during the 1970s. The story centers around the themes of isolation, adolescence, and death. From youngest to oldest, the Lisbon sisters were Cecilia, Lux, Bonnie, Mary, and Therese. The sisters were seen as mysterious and beautiful beings that everyone wanted to be near but were completely unattainable. After a suicide attempt from the youngest, Cecilia, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon became more overprotective and began isolating the girls. As the boys grew more curious about the Lisbon sisters’ lives, there was one thing they didn’t know about: the sisters’ suicide pact. Years later, the neighborhood boys couldn’t get over the Lisbon girls or their suicides and they would forever “love” them, even though they barely knew them.
Being a young pre-teen watching it for the first time, there was no way I actually understood what was happening, but I vividly remember finishing the movie and having a lingering sense of sadness and a pit in my chest. One aspect of the film I remember finding interesting was the fact that it was told from the perspective of the male characters, even though it was a story about the Lisbon sisters. The men reflecting on their time with the family only made me realize that the boys didn’t truly know them, but rather they only liked the idea of them that they had created in their minds. They saw the girls as beautiful enigmas that they could fantasize and talk about while completely disregarding their internal struggles of depression and isolation. The male fantasy plays a major role in this film; I knew that even when I was young. They loved the idea of them but didn’t know them enough to love them since they were always kept at a distance. The boys never truly knew the Lisbon sisters as much as they said they did, and it became clear when they couldn’t grasp the idea that the girls had eventually committed suicide.
Sofia Coppola perfectly emulates the theme of female loneliness and disconnect from the world in every way possible. From the forced isolation created by the Lisbon parents to just simply being teenage girls living in a male-dominated world, the loss of innocence and loneliness is there. The struggle of womanhood and the world never truly seeing or valuing you for who you are is embodied in this film. The feeling of being misunderstood and seen as an object is an experience many women go through, and for it to be portrayed in a film so well made me feel seen. The Virgin Suicides is haunting and yet beautiful, and Coppola’s work will forever enamor me.