Cinematography: The Virgin Suicides

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (1999)

Director: Sofia Coppola

Cinematographer: Edward Lachman

One of the things I love about The Virgin Suicides is its cinematography. Mainly employing shades of orange and blue, Edward Lachman (Far from Heaven, Erin Brockovich) achieves a remarkable blend of impossible dreamland and overwhelming dysphoria.

Oranges...

Ghosts of Yestertears

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

Sofia Coppola, 1999

You're probably looking at your keyboard to verify if T is beside Y. Yes, it is. And no, it's not a typo. I use yestertears every time I refer to not-so-happy things in the past, yet here they are crawling their way to the present just to haunt you.

That's what happens to the narrator in The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola's stunning feature film debut. The film tackles the dilemma of angst-ridden adolescence, the downsides of being a girl, teenage sexuality, the anguish of yearning, and — of course — the complexity of suicide.

Beauty and Madness

Go Muskies!

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS
Michael Patrick Jann, 1999

"This isn't an American Teen Princess Pageant. This is... this is... this is Nazi Germany!"
- Amber Atkins

Every year the American Teen Princess Pageant is held; it's one of the oldest and most prestigious beauty pageants in the US. Sponsored by Sarah Rose Cosmetics, the pageant embodies the dream of an "American-made" girl: personal growth, scholarship, travel, and (eventually) fame.