Movie Analysis: The Virgin Suicides
How does the Sofia Coppola, in The Virgin Suicides, use a range of stylistic features (film techniques) to display the movies themes and with what effect on the audience?
INTRO:
Director Sofia Coppola uses a range of film techniques to display themes of obsession, the superficiality of vision and isolation from the real world in her film The Virgin Suicides. Through use of symbolism, characterization, setting and techniques specific to a film such a soundtrack, Coppola is able to construct the intricate, mysterious and unfathomable world of the Lisbon sisters. The story of the five sisters, told through the eyes of a group of neighborhood boys obsessed with their mere existence, becomes somewhat of an urban myth. Their tragedy translating to the downfall of the community of which they lived. Coppola portrays the five Lisbon sisters as ethereal entities existing on a level separate to the rest of modern society through her unique and specific directing style; creating an unearthly, pastel world of femininity. Through these film techniques, the prominent themes of The Virgin Suicides are effectively communicated to the audience, allowing them to see past the facades and illusions of stereotypical 1990’s American suburbia.
OBSESSION
The theme of obsession and the power it possesses is prominent in Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. Obsession in this film relates to the infamous Lisbon sisters; portrayed with assistance from setting, symbolism, and characterization. The film is voiced over by an anonymous narrator, assumed to belong to one of the many teenage boys of which have become in enchanted by Lisbon girls. The particular group of boys that the audience are introduced to enlighten us into the lives and minds of the five Lisbon sisters, perhaps more then the girls themselves. In a scene from the film, set in the bedroom of one of the boys, we see them attempting to decode the delicate and complex puzzle of the mysterious girls. Reading through the
INTRO:
Director Sofia Coppola uses a range of film techniques to display themes of obsession, the superficiality of vision and isolation from the real world in her film The Virgin Suicides. Through use of symbolism, characterization, setting and techniques specific to a film such a soundtrack, Coppola is able to construct the intricate, mysterious and unfathomable world of the Lisbon sisters. The story of the five sisters, told through the eyes of a group of neighborhood boys obsessed with their mere existence, becomes somewhat of an urban myth. Their tragedy translating to the downfall of the community of which they lived. Coppola portrays the five Lisbon sisters as ethereal entities existing on a level separate to the rest of modern society through her unique and specific directing style; creating an unearthly, pastel world of femininity. Through these film techniques, the prominent themes of The Virgin Suicides are effectively communicated to the audience, allowing them to see past the facades and illusions of stereotypical 1990’s American suburbia.
OBSESSION
The theme of obsession and the power it possesses is prominent in Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. Obsession in this film relates to the infamous Lisbon sisters; portrayed with assistance from setting, symbolism, and characterization. The film is voiced over by an anonymous narrator, assumed to belong to one of the many teenage boys of which have become in enchanted by Lisbon girls. The particular group of boys that the audience are introduced to enlighten us into the lives and minds of the five Lisbon sisters, perhaps more then the girls themselves. In a scene from the film, set in the bedroom of one of the boys, we see them attempting to decode the delicate and complex puzzle of the mysterious girls. Reading through the