Inspired by a tragic news item, this film marked the birth of a great director!

There are films that leave lasting memories, despite the passing years. This is the case with Virgin Suicides, released in France in September 2000 and re-released this Wednesday, July 12 in theaters in a restored 4K version.

From the first film by Sofia Coppola – who was twenty-eight at the time – no one has forgotten the golden hair of the Lisbon sisters played by Kirsten Dunst, AJ Cook, Hanna Hall, Leslie Hayman and Chelse Swain, the look of the heartthrob Trip Fontaine, played by Josh Hartnett, or the soundtrack composed by the French group Air.

United States, 1970s. Cecilia Lisbon, the youngest of five daughters, has just attempted suicide. To change their youngest child’s mind, the parents agree to organize a party to which the neighborhood boys 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…

To celebrate the theatrical release of this cult film, a look back at the history of the production of the feature film.

A book inspired by a tragic true story

The feature film is adapted from the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 1993, Virgin Suicides, which is based on a true story. In the mid-1970s, five young girls from an ultra-conservative family committed suicide. Their decision remains a mystery.

Initially, the adaptation of this novel was to be directed by another filmmaker, whose name remains unknown. Months pass and finally the project circulates between several hands. Very attached to the book, Sofia Coppola becomes aware of the difficulties encountered by the producers to find the right director and the right script, and decides to take care of it herself.

“I was really motivated to make this film, so I met them [les producteurs] for them to take a look at my version“, she explains to Entertainment Weekly.

“I had heard that the other director was doing something very dark, and I wanted to bring light, that’s what I imagined while reading the book… And then they gave me my chance !”

“This is the book I would have liked to write”

In 2000, the film’s press kit presented an interview of the young filmmaker with Susanna Howe. Sofia Coppola explained more precisely what had attracted her to the work of Jeffrey Eugenides.

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“If I could have been a writer, this is the book I would have wanted to write. I really liked the way Jeffrey talks about the opposition between adulthood and childhood. He knows how to be funny in the most tragic moments, and never backs down from things that might seem inappropriate, like when the boy thanks the parents Lisbon for the night Cecilia died.

The book is remarkably written, and the stories of love obsessions are always fun to read. And then there is also this unique way of evoking something that is no longer, whether it is an era, a person or innocence. I felt like he shared a sentiment that I have, and I guess everyone has…”

And the cinematographic version of the novel has been dubbed by the author himself, who will say after seeing the film: “Of all the adaptations, Sofia’s was the best constructed. I think she’s more intrigued by the girls’ story itself than the boys’ point of view, so that gives different nuances to the story .While writing the novel, I was more concerned with girls and Sofia understood that very well.”

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Limited budget, express shooting

This film about adolescence was shot in less than a month – twenty-seven days to be exact. However, nothing was won.

A week before the first clapperboard, the financing of the film fell through. Far from being discouraged, Sofia Coppola and her team were able to find new resources but have a limited budget of six million dollars.

The director says, in an interview with The Guardian, that one of the biggest challenges was to create a period piece with so little money. “Fortunately, I had the support of experienced and respected actors like James Woods And Kathleen Turner”, she relativizes.

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Advice from a father

Daughter of the great Francis Ford Coppola, the filmmaker was able to count on the kindness and advice of her father to support her.

Virgin Suicides was also produced by the family company American Zoetrope, created in 1969 for the film The People of the Rain.

When the renowned director came to visit his daughter on the set of her first production, he advised her to say “Action!” louder so everyone knew she was in charge. To which Sofia Coppola retorted: “Dad, let me do it my way.”

If Francis Ford Coppola produced the film, Sofia involved other members of his family in his first feature film. Thus, his brother Roman Coppola is the director of the second unit and his cousin Robert Schwartzman embodies one of the boys from the neighborhood, the young Paul Baldino.

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Birth of a beautiful friendship

In addition to her first experience as a director and screenwriter, Sofia Coppola signs, with the film, the beginning of a beautiful and great friendship with the actress. Kirsten Dunstwho plays the main heroine, Lux Lisbon.

The filmmaker made her her favorite actress and collaborated with her on numerous occasions thereafter: Marie Antoinette, in which the star played the title role, Les Preies, or The Bling Ring, for the time of a small cameo.

During the promotion of Les Preies in 2017, the director also confided to the magazine She : “Beyond her acting talent, Kirsten is an artist in whom I have absolute confidence. Over the years, we have become friends. She is a bit like my little sister, I saw her grow up in my films She knows my sensitivity, my humor. With her, no need to explain what I want. She captures everything on the spot.”

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Confidential release for cult film

Presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes in 1999, Virgin Suicides seduced many spectators and received praise from critics. In French cinemas, it has accumulated no less than 480,536 admissions at the end of its run. Excellent figures for a first film, which is more independent.

But in the United States, it’s a different story. “Despite this reception, almost no one saw him in America. It had a dismal exit, and then it disappeared from theaters” regret the filmmaker. On American soil, Virgin Suicides collected less than five million dollars and garnered $10.4 million at the international box office.

However, shortly after its release on video, the film offers a second life and 23 years later, it enjoys a status – deserved – of cult film.

With this first feature film, Sofia Coppola lays the foundations of her cinema: adolescence and the difficult transition to adulthood, a soundtrack in perfect symbiosis with the image and a melancholy that shines through in each shot.

Virgin Suicides is to be rediscovered at the cinema this Wednesday in a restored 4K version.