The Virgin Suicides

Directed by Sofia Coppola
Starring Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Josh Hartnett

The breakthrough film for Sofia Coppola and a then-teenage Kirsten Dunst, The Virgin Suicides became an almost-instant cult classic courtesy of its dream-like cinematography by Ed Lachman, a chilled soundtrack from Air, and its morbid subject matter married to an ethereal, light aesthetic touch.

Adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 novel of the same name, The Virgin Suicides tells the story of the five Lisbon sisters in the 1970s, the eldest of which is Lux (Dunst), living in a stifling suburban world hemmed in by their overprotective, ultraconservative parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner).  After the youngest sister Cecilia commits suicide, the Lisbon parents become ever more increasingly controlling, isolating the rest of the sisters further, until everything backfires. Premiering at the 1999 Cannes film festival, The Virgin Suicides was immediately acclaimed as one of the highlights of the year, announcing two major new talents in Coppola and Dunst. Melancholic, effortlessly cool and sad, the film has since firmly entered the busy canon of coming-of-age cinema.

Presented as part of Cinema Rediscovered on Tour, a Watershed project.
With support from BFI awarding funds from The National Lottery, Park Circus and MUBI.