It’s one of the great classics of American independent cinema and it joins the Netflix catalog. The opportunity to catch up with this film which is celebrating its 25th anniversary and which hasn’t aged a day.
There are films that mark an era and yet manage to be timeless. This is the case of this classic of American cinema that has just entered the Netflix catalog. Rated 3.9 out of 5 by AlloCiné viewers, this feature film has moved an entire generation and will still shake up many others.
“A very profound film that describes in a fairly accurate and disturbing way the turmoil of adolescence, this strange period that everyone has experienced” wrote Marc L, while JimBo Lebowski talks about a “masterpiece”, “a sincere and moving film”.
For her part, Marion P evokes “a masterstroke” for this “a vaporous film, both light and heavy, a delicate sensory experience on a drama that is always difficult to explain and accept when it occurs in our lives”.
The ultimate film about the weight of adolescence
This masterstroke is a first feature film, that of a filmmaker who was born with this film marked by her imprint and themes dear to her heart: Sofia Coppola, daughter of the illustrious Francis Ford Coppola, who would go on to direct Lost in Translation and Marie-Antoinette.
Inspired by the novel The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, published in 1995, the screenwriter and director succeeded with an implacable scenario in convincing the rights holders to give her the rights to the book even though they had already been given before.
Virgin Suicides takes us back to the 1970s in the United States. Cecilia Lisbon, the youngest of five girls, has just attempted suicide. To distract their youngest, her parents agree to throw a party to which boys from the neighborhood are invited, who have always been fascinated by these five stunningly beautiful sisters.
During this evening, Cecilia throws herself out of the window. From then on, the Lisbon girls, four in number, will be more and more suffocated by their overprotective parents, until the ultimate tragedy…
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Even though the story is told by their neighbors, a group of young boys fascinated by the Lisbon sisters, it is the malaise of these teenagers that is depicted in the story with great accuracy, a moving melancholy and a refined aesthetic.
The Lisbon sisters – played by Kirsten Dunst, AJ Cook, Hanna Hall, Leslie Hayman and Chelse Swain -, the bad boy Trip Fontaine, played by Josh Hartnett, and the smothering parents, played by Kathleen Turner and James Woods are unforgettable in this masterpiece, whose soundtrack is composed by the French group Air.
So hurry up and jump on Netflix to catch up or rewatch this classic of American independent cinema which is capable of shaking up all generations, which crosses eras and which has not aged a day, twenty-five years after its release.
The movie “Virgin Suicides” is available on Netflix.
