The Virgin Suicides

Synopsis

Set in a quiet, affluent Detroit suburb during the mid-1970s, The Virgin Suicides tells the haunting story of the five beautiful, enigmatic Lisbon sisters: Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia. Following a shocking suicide attempt by the youngest sister, Cecilia, the girls' overly protective, deeply religious parents impose a strict, suffocating lockdown on the household, isolating them from the outside world. This cloistered existence only intensifies the infatuation of a group of neighborhood boys, who obsessively observe the sisters from afar, collecting artifacts, reading diaries, and trying to decipher their mysterious lives. When a smooth-talking school heartthrob named Trip Fontaine coaxes the parents into letting the girls attend the high school prom, a fleeting taste of adolescent freedom gives way to an even harsher domestic confinement. Narrated from the collective memory of the boys years later, Sofia Coppola's dreamlike and melancholy feature directorial debut serves as a poetic, visual exploration of memory, repression, the loss of innocence, and the agonizing mysteries of youth.