What filmmaking techniques does The Virgin Suicides use?

CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in The Virgin Suicides (2000): Retrospective Voiceover, The Gaze, Music as Social Bridge and Unreliable Narrator.

Who directed The Virgin Suicides?

Sofia Coppola directed The Virgin Suicides, released in 2000. CineCode also covers Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006), Somewhere (2010), The Bling Ring (2013), The Beguiled (2017), On the Rocks (2020).

What films are similar to The Virgin Suicides?

Films that share techniques with The Virgin Suicides include Chinatown (1974), The Usual Suspects (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Get Out (2017).

Drama · Romance

The Virgin Suicides

Sofia Coppola, 2000

In 1970s suburban Michigan, a group of neighborhood boys remembers the five Lisbon sisters, who live under strict, religious parents. After the youngest sister attempts suicide, the family closes in on itself. Coppola tells it from the boys' view, so the girls stay beautiful and out of reach.

2 Narrative 1 Psychology 1 Sound

At a glance

The Virgin Suicides is a 2000 drama and romance film directed by Sofia Coppola. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 narrative, 1 psychology and 1 sound), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Chinatown uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Retrospective Voiceover

Having a narrator tell the story from some point after it happened. The events feel like memory, and you sense early on that something will be lost.

How this film uses it

The boys, now grown men, tell the story as a memory. They collect objects and stories about the girls and still cannot explain what happened. You sense from the start that something will be lost.

Where to see it

The opening memory. The men recall the five Lisbon sisters and how they filled the boys' conversations and dreams.

Psychology

The Gaze

Paying attention to who is looking, who is being looked at and whose eyes the camera borrows. Looking becomes a form of power in the story.

How this film uses it

Everything you see of the girls is what the boys see: from across the street, through windows and in rumors. Looking turns into a kind of obsession. The girls are never allowed to look back on their own terms.

Where to see it

The boys watching the house. They follow the Lisbon girls as the parents tighten their watch.

Sound

Music as Social Bridge

Using music as the way 2 characters get to know each other. Sharing or arguing over songs stands in for working out identity, respect and desire across a social gap.

How this film uses it

After the girls are locked in, the boys and girls communicate by flashlight signals and by playing records over the phone. Songs say what they cannot say. Music is the only door left open between the house and the street.

Where to see it

The phone calls. The boys and the girls trade songs over the phone while the parents keep the girls inside.

Narrative

Unreliable Narrator

Telling the story through a character you can't trust, because they are lying, mentally unwell or fooling themselves. At some point, you have to rethink what you were told.

How this film uses it

The boys can only guess what the girls felt. They fill in the gaps with memory and longing. The film never lets you forget that this is their version, and the real story may be different.

Where to see it

The homecoming dance. Trip takes Lux to the dance, and the story you see is the boys' account of what happened.

Questions

The Virgin Suicides: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does The Virgin Suicides use?: CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in The Virgin Suicides (2000): Retrospective Voiceover, The Gaze, Music as Social Bridge and Unreliable Narrator.
Who directed The Virgin Suicides?: Sofia Coppola directed The Virgin Suicides, released in 2000. CineCode also covers Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006), Somewhere (2010), The Bling Ring (2013), The Beguiled (2017), On the Rocks (2020).
What films are similar to The Virgin Suicides?: Films that share techniques with The Virgin Suicides include Chinatown (1974), The Usual Suspects (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Get Out (2017).

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