Film Project: The Virgin Suicides
The Virgin Suicides. Dir. Sofia Coppola. American Zoetrope, 2000
The Virgin Suicides was a film set in the mid 1970s in a small upscale neighborhood in Michigan. The basic premise of the story is the life of five teenage girls settled in a seemingly normal American society, and how the pressures of adolescence changed their existence. What I found to be the most compelling aspect of the movie was the type of parents that these five young girls had influencing every facet of their lives. What these two parents expected of their daughters (more so the mother than the father), was an unattainable picture perfect idea of the untouched, unheard, god-loving American beauty.
To their community they are viewed as just that, until a tragic chain of events is ignited by the suicide of the youngest daughter, Cecilia. The only other daughter that plays a big role in the movie was Lux Lisbon (Kirsten Dunst) who is one of the older sisters. Lux’s biggest struggles are with her sexuality and with approval, which of course is only addressed by her parents through strict discipline.
The girls seemed to have an incredibly strong bond with one another, just as a group of close girlfriends would, which ultimately was a disservice to them. Many teenage girls believe that their parents are too strict with them and tend to turn to their friends as an outlet. This is when detrimental pacts start to arise, because girls tend to lose trust in their parents and put more reliance on their friends. The theme from this movie that most relates to girls studies is the idea of keeping girls ill-informed and under lock and key will keep them safe. Both parents felt they were very loving and grounded, but they paid zero attention to the girl’s emotional needs, which caused all of their children to have internal conflict. There were major issues with sexuality, religion, independence, and communication. The mother felt that it was appropriate to raise daughters in the image of chastity and purity, over self-expression and knowledge.
There was one scene in the movie where the girls are allowed to go to their school dance, and Lux didn’t come home with her sisters that night. She had spent the night with her first love, Trip Fontain (Josh Jartnett) and woke up heart broken because he had left her in the night. This is when you really start to see Lux seek for approval through smoking cigarettes and sleeping with random guys on her rooftop. This is when the parents became even stricter with the daughters. They took them out of school, which cut of all socialization with anyone but each other. She also took away their rock record albums that even remotely hinted sexuality, because in her eyes anything sexual was evil. This is when you really began to see the girls struggle to understand themselves and their situation. Lux seeks for approval through smoking cigarettes and sleeping with random guys on her rooftop.
The text that most relates to this film was The Purity Myth by Valenti. This movie was the visual aide portraying the repercussion of young girls who are expected to live up to morals and ideals that completely stifle their sanity and well being.
The Virgin Suicides was a film set in the mid 1970s in a small upscale neighborhood in Michigan. The basic premise of the story is the life of five teenage girls settled in a seemingly normal American society, and how the pressures of adolescence changed their existence. What I found to be the most compelling aspect of the movie was the type of parents that these five young girls had influencing every facet of their lives. What these two parents expected of their daughters (more so the mother than the father), was an unattainable picture perfect idea of the untouched, unheard, god-loving American beauty.
To their community they are viewed as just that, until a tragic chain of events is ignited by the suicide of the youngest daughter, Cecilia. The only other daughter that plays a big role in the movie was Lux Lisbon (Kirsten Dunst) who is one of the older sisters. Lux’s biggest struggles are with her sexuality and with approval, which of course is only addressed by her parents through strict discipline.
The girls seemed to have an incredibly strong bond with one another, just as a group of close girlfriends would, which ultimately was a disservice to them. Many teenage girls believe that their parents are too strict with them and tend to turn to their friends as an outlet. This is when detrimental pacts start to arise, because girls tend to lose trust in their parents and put more reliance on their friends. The theme from this movie that most relates to girls studies is the idea of keeping girls ill-informed and under lock and key will keep them safe. Both parents felt they were very loving and grounded, but they paid zero attention to the girl’s emotional needs, which caused all of their children to have internal conflict. There were major issues with sexuality, religion, independence, and communication. The mother felt that it was appropriate to raise daughters in the image of chastity and purity, over self-expression and knowledge.
There was one scene in the movie where the girls are allowed to go to their school dance, and Lux didn’t come home with her sisters that night. She had spent the night with her first love, Trip Fontain (Josh Jartnett) and woke up heart broken because he had left her in the night. This is when you really start to see Lux seek for approval through smoking cigarettes and sleeping with random guys on her rooftop. This is when the parents became even stricter with the daughters. They took them out of school, which cut of all socialization with anyone but each other. She also took away their rock record albums that even remotely hinted sexuality, because in her eyes anything sexual was evil. This is when you really began to see the girls struggle to understand themselves and their situation. Lux seeks for approval through smoking cigarettes and sleeping with random guys on her rooftop.
The text that most relates to this film was The Purity Myth by Valenti. This movie was the visual aide portraying the repercussion of young girls who are expected to live up to morals and ideals that completely stifle their sanity and well being.
Comments
I think one particular scene within the film was most telling of this. It's after Cecilia's suicide and Mr. Lisbon and some neighbors are pulling up the wrought iron fence Cecilia fell on when she jumped form her window. At one point they realize that they can't manually uproot the fence and they use a truck to pull out the fence, taking out a whole line of green shrubbery.
It's almost as if the adults both in and outside of the family are placing blame on the fence, an inanimate object. If they just remove that all will return back to normal. But Cecilia's suicide has nothing to do with the fence.
I think parents raising children in the contemporary era are more aware of the feelings and experiences their children are having in their adolescent years and are less likely to 'uproot the fence,' if you will, instead of addressing a problem. Still, there needs to be more communication within families and Sofia Coppola depicts that message in an interesting way.