Saturday, May 7, 2011

Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides is one of the stranger movies I have seen. I love the style of the film, set in a suburb in Michigan. The story is of five girls who live in a house with over-religious, strict parents. The youngest is thirteen and commits suicide, leaving the rest of the family in an odd state of closeness and depression.








The pans of the film are matched with a soundtrack done by the french electronic band air. The entire film is shot with muted colors and focuses on the girls and their budding romances, as well as their sister's suicide. The soundtrack in combination with the film style create a romantic feel, which would seem odd for girls who are so young and begin the movie as virgins.
Lux is one of my favorite characters. She is the sister who has sex with multiple boys after her heart is broken by a boy. She loves attention and is shown throughout the movie as the camera angles focus on her beauty and the narrator talks about her promiscuity. The effects as seen above also give the film a child-like quality to it, like a kid was editing it. 

A motif in the movie is trees. The film starts with the trees in the areas being cut down due to a spreading disease. The girls all hate this and protest by standing in front of the tree in their front yard that is scheduled to be killed. As the girls lose and the trees are cut down, their depression and dissatisfaction with their lives becomes more apparent. This still is Cecilia, the daughter who kills herself first as a ghost in a tree. Those she knows in the movie occasionally see her and she speaks to them, and then she disappears. I think this is a very bold and realistic interpretation of when someone passes. You feel like you see them when you don't, and the quick flash of them in your mind is so clear that they could be right in front of you. 

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