In picturesque suburbia, the sky is golden, lawns are watered, a couple walks a dog, and a father grills. The scene is nostalgic, a dreamlike sequence of nuclear families. The film then cuts to the inside of a bathroom, coolly colored in contrast, and to a wall of beauty products and religious objects as the ceaseless dripping of a bathtub faucet reveals bloodied water and the floating face of an open-eyed girl. Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) is an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name, a captivating look into the inner lives of the mysterious Lisbon girls from the perspective and memories of a group of neighborhood boys. As Coppola’s first written and directed feature, the film indicates the base from which Coppola would use later in her career, Lost in Translation (2003) and Marie Antoinette (2006) in particular, which she labels as an indirect trilogy.
Following the three premises that Andrew Sarris claims are indications of an auteur- the technical abilities, personal style, and interior meaning of a filmmaker’s work, Coppola’s films can be observed to follow similar patterns and tropes that reflect her intentions behind the camera. In her first written and directed feature, The Virgin Suicides, Coppola sets the standard for the way she would continue her filmography, and that would place her within Andrew Sarris’s the technical, personal, and interior premises of an auteur.
The first premise of an auteur is technical competence, or a filmmaker’s knowledge and capability in film creation. Coppola stands out in her use of sound, setting and framing within her filmography, as she uses all three to draw the audience’s attention to the contrast between a character and their environment, thus revealing internal thoughts of characters that could otherwise go unnoticed.
Sound design in Coppola’s films are specific, with noticeable changes between diegetic and nondiegetic sound. Diegetic sound is important in drawing attention and creating interest in the environment. In The Virgin Suicides, diegetic sound is used to draw contrast between the busy neighborhood and public places versus the confined Lisbon household. Music is used diegetically for the boys to communicate to the girls, and Lux being forced to burn her records shows the last impactful control that their mother can have over their lives. To the Lisbon girls, music is freedom and individuality, and the combination of soundtrack and diegetic sounds reveals this.
Setting is distinct in The Virgin Suicides, as the suburbs contrast the seemingly oblivious citizens in contrast to the mysterious and alluring Lisbon family. Bree Hoskin explains in “Landscape and Longing in Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides”, how the suburban setting is “loaded with significance…acting as a universal space of childhood experience, a space onto which is projected both the hope and hopeless longing” (Hoskin 219). The choice of setting in Coppola’s work is intentional, revealing traits of characters that are placed in public and private environments, “to emphasize the contradictions and restrictions of a culture that celebrates successful public femininity to the extent it leaves precious little room for private expression of feelings of inadequacy, failure or anger” (Handyside 34). Setting in The Virgin Suicides shows the contradiction of how the Lisbon girls act in public, during school and events, versus their controlled existence at home. Coppola uses a similar reliance on setting in Marie Antoinette and Lost in Translation to reveal the pressures on female characters to conform to society, and their conflicting feelings about expectations.
Framing in The Virgin Suicides coincides with the setting, as characters are positioned differently in their environments. In the Lisbon house, shots are tight and intimate, with limited headroom to mimic the suffocation of the girls. Shots outside where the girls are alone, in particular a shot of Lux waking up in the football field, parallels an idea of freedom, along with loneliness as the girls are unable to make connections with their peers.
Personal style is the second premise, which indicates a uniqueness in an auteur’s filmography that sets their work apart from the rest. Coppola’s personal style is apparent through her use of color, objects, choice of actors, and artistic references.
For each of her films, Coppola follows a specific color palette that reflects the nature of the film and the characters as they are viewed. For The Virgin Suicides, the film is bathed in a golden haze that maintains the nostalgia and glorification that the neighborhood boys feel about the Lisbon girls. Color gives deeper meaning in the context of costume as well, with the white dresses especially purposeful, to reinforce the innocence and purity that is projected onto the girls through religion. Coppola uses color in Marie Antoinette in a similar effect, as the film uses bright colors to bring out the assumed vibrant life of the Queen of France, while the color palette in Lost in Translation matches the tone and feelings of isolation between characters.
Items in The Virgin Suicides continue themes of religion, sexuality, and the female perspective as we see rosaries and crosses intermixed with tampons and beauty products, a combination of what is allowed and what is condemned by their mother. In further works Coppola continues this, as items that surround a character indicate who they appear to be from society as opposed to their own self perception. Lastly, Coppola uses similar actors across films, with Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, and Bill Murray appearing more than once.
Interior meaning in Coppola’s work is focused on the internal struggles of individuals, along with concepts of feminism and subversion of the male gaze. Frequently, characters are in an internal and external metamorphosis that they fulfill throughout the film. Her attention to the intimate moments within, and how the audience sees characters react to those changes, is what allows her films to have deep interior meaning. In the case of The Virgin Suicides, we see multiple characters in internal conflict. The teenage feelings of longing and heightened emotions are emphasized as we learn more about the Lisbon girls and their individual coping mechanisms in a strict environment. In reference to her choice in characters, Coppola states,
“I always like characters who are in the midst of a transition and trying to find their place in the world and their identity. That is the most heightened when you’re a teenager, but I definitely like it at different stages of life. I like stories where the drama comes more as an internal part of the character as opposed to from outside forces that make you change” (Monoghan 89).
Subversion of stereotypes is another consistent theme in Coppola’s work, and The Virgin Suicides is noted for how it critiques the male gaze and calls attention to the audience’s voyeurism, similar to Laura Mulvey’s perspective in the essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Rather than adhere to the perspective of the boys that watch them, the Lisbon girls carry the power, as their mystery and untouchable lives feel almost saint-like to the adolescents. By subverting stereotypes and making the audience away of their voyeurism, Coppola creates “a kind of cinema that is not merely made by, but for women; that is, it places the male spectator in the position of feeling the effects to which a patriarchal regime of images subjects the female body (Rogers 14).” Coppola continues to use feminist ideals and subversion of stereotypes, including her most recent film, Priscilla (2023), where she explored both the public and intimate life of Priscilla Presley.
Although Coppola’s filmography is diverse in topics and characters, there can be connections drawn between all that demonstrate her unique ability as a filmmaker. Her work in the technical, personal, and interior premises of auteur theory has allowed her to stand out as an influential filmmaker. It goes without saying that filmmaking is historically a male-dominated industry, and although strides have been made to encourage equality in the field, the gender gap remains a problem when it comes to the diversity of films (Hollinger). In the world of auteurs, Sofia Coppola is an undeniable trailblazer, paving ways for female filmmakers to create not only visually compelling films, but films that support women and show the harm in stereotypes while embracing individuality.
Works Cited
Handyside, Fiona. Sofia Coppola: A Cinema of Girlhood. I.B. Tauris, 2017.
Hollinger, Karen. Feminist Film Studies, Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.
Hoskin, Bree. "Playground Love: Landscape and Longing in Sofia Coppola's the Virgin Suicides." Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 3, 2007, pp. 214-221.
Monaghan, Amy N. Sofia Coppola: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2023.
Mulvey, L. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, Sept. 1975, pp. 6–18.
Rogers, Anna Backman. Sofia Coppola: The Politics of Visual Pleasure. Berghahn Books, 2018.
Sarris, A. “Notes on the ‘Auteur’ Theory in 1962.” Kwartalnik Filmowy, vol. 59, no. 59, Jan. 2007, pp. 6–17.