The Virgin Suicides

A suburb near Detroit in the mid-1970s: the Lisbons bring up their five daughters very strictly. When the youngest attempts suicide, the Catholic parents call in a psychiatrist. On his advice, they invite neighbouring boys of the same age to a party, during which Cecilia, 13, actually takes her own life. As a result, the girls slip away from their parents more and more. After Lux, 14, loses her virginity to a high school crush, they forbid their daughters any contact outside the home. Their isolation has dramatic consequences ... Told from the retrospective perspective of the neighbourhood boys who were once in love, their reminiscences of a tragic "spring awakening" take the form of a melancholy requiem. Following a long tradition of youthful tragedies, The Virgin Suicides works against the romanticisation of adolescence. Despite its colourful pop appeal, the film is ominous and oppressive from the outset and transports its audience into a juvenile parallel world that is as magical as it is mysterious. Sofia Coppola's stylish production lends perfect cinematic expression to the zeitgeisty 90s girlism.
(Berlinale '23)