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The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Somewhere around The Virgin Suicides’ third mesmeric close-up of Kirsten Dunst’s teeth and eyelashes you realize these alluring compositions impart so little understanding of Lux Lisbon that we might as well be watching her from across the street.
That peeping distance is mostly from where the neighbor boys observe the doomed Lisbon sisters—locked in a 1970s suburban prison under the eye of their overprotective parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner).
Unknowability is the stated point of The Virgin Suicides, as outlined in dozens of reflective Jeffrey Eugenides lines from the novel and an equal number of painterly, hypersubjective shots in Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut.
“We knew that [the sisters] knew everything about us, and that we couldn’t fathom them at all,” admits the collective voice of the narrating boys next door.
In the same sense that unknowability hovers around the titular sensationalist aspect of The Virgin Suicides, it’s not a stretch to apply it to the private intensity of near-universal teenage angst and indignity—so roiling that the rest of the world either has to look away, mock it, or miss the forest for the trees (see: those Dunst close-ups).
The Virgin Suicides screens June 14 at Tomorrow Theater as part of the Movie Book Club series hosted by Portland author Margaret Malone. The screening will be accompanied by a discussion of the novel, elucidating how Coppola adapted this neo-classic clash of inner worlds, outer vantages, and the dream states where they briefly meet.
Also Playing:
Academy: The Muppet Movie (1979), 8 1/2 (1963) and D.E.B.S. (2004), June 10–11. Melancholia (2011), A Place in the Sun (1951) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975), June 12–18. The Lawnmower Man (1992), June 13. Cinema 21: Do the Right Thing (1989), June 13.
Cinemagic: Satan’s Slaves (2017), June 12 and 15. Impetigore (2019), June 14 and 16. The Raid (2011), June 13, 15 and 16. The Raid 2 (2014), June 13, 16 and 17. Clinton: The Trap (1970), June 10. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012), June 11. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), June 13. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), June 13. Desert Hearts (1985), June 14. Hollywood: Breaking Away (1979), June 10. Clash of the Titans (1981), June 11. Paddington (2014), June 14. Dick (1999), June 15. Mission: Finding Dory (2016), June 14. Tomorrow: Shakedown (2018), June 11. The Science of Sleep and Shiphead (2006), June 13. Climax (2018), June 13. Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013), June 14.
