☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The
Virgin Suicides (1999) – S. Coppola
Sofia Coppola was born in ’71, so it
isn’t plausible that she has genuine memories of 1974 when this film takes
place. I’m not sure I do either. But the music from this period carried on for
quite some time, particularly on the radio. Coppola makes good use of music in
the film, both as sonic wallpaper and to cue important moments, as Scorsese is also
wont to do. It also becomes part of the
plot when the boys trade songs with the Lisbon girls over the telephone later
in the movie. I’m remembering Heart,
Styx, maybe early Bee Gees or Carpenters.
Even now, these songs trigger a lot of sentiment in me, even a sort of
free-floating kind without real memories attached. Of course, Coppola wrote her script about the
five young girls who eventually commit suicide from a pre-existing book. But the style with which she imbues the film
is her own and it is refreshing and a delight. Kirsten Dunst takes a
star-making turn or at least the camera gives her significant air time in a
hazy sunlit seventies way so that she is the de facto star. James Woods and
Kathleen Turner make good constipated parents who cause all the problems. Now that we’ve seen the trajectory of
Coppola’s films, I guess we can say that her focus on style might have
diminishing returns but you never can tell.
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