Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst on ‘The Virgin Suicides’ at 25 years

Sofia Coppola has big plans for the 25th anniversary of her directorial debut “The Virgin Suicides.”

The 2000 film, which premiered at Cannes, cemented Coppola as the instructor for young female anxiety. Kirsten Dunst directed the film adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ 1993 novel, which centers on the five fictional sisters from Lisbon who kill themselves one by one. Kathleen Turner and James Woods play their overprotective, religious parents; Dunst stars as middle sister Lux. Despite the film earnings just under $5 million in the US against a $9 million budget, later became a cult classic synonymous with the melancholic realization that teenage longing and ennui can extend into adulthood.

Coppola told ELLE that she and frequent collaborator Dunst have plans to mark the 25th anniversary of “The Virgin Suicides.” (Dunst and Coppola have been reunited for “Marie Antoinette” and “The Beguiled”).

“I think Kirsten (Dunst) and I are planning to do some screenings or something around that,” Coppola said of “The Virgin Suicides,” who turned 25. “I’ve always had a connection to that time in life; it’s something I’m drawn to … so much of my work has been around young women growing up, and the fact that it can still connect with people makes me happy.”

Coppola previously said in the film’s official production notes back in 2000 that Eugenides’ novel inspired her to try directing.

“I really didn’t know I wanted to be a director until I read ‘The Virgin Suicides’ and saw clearly how it had to be done,” Coppola said. “I immediately saw the central story as being about what distance and time and memory do to you, and about the extraordinary power of the unfathomable. It’s about the big themes in life: about mortality and obsession and love.”

Coppola later recounted Weekly entertainment in 2018 that she wanted to create a new “aesthetic” on screen because of the novel.

“There wasn’t a lot of poetic filmmaking that spoke to me as a girl and a young woman and also treated (us) with the respect that I felt the audience deserved,” Coppola said. “I love Jeffrey (Eugenides’) book and I felt like he really captured the mystery of that age, so that was the book that motivated me to want to make that movie, but I didn’t really see that aesthetic (in other movies) ).”

She said distributor Paramount Classics, however, was at a loss as to how to market her vision for the film.

“It didn’t have much of a release,” Coppola said. “Paramount Classics didn’t really know what to do with it. They were afraid that girls would kill themselves if they saw it! It had a really small release. We made it for very little, so they didn’t have to do much to make it.”

She added after the film was restored in 4K with the Criterion Collection, “It made me happy when people started telling me about 10 years ago that their teenage daughters loved the movie. I was like, they weren’t even born then! How do they even know about it? I’m glad it got a new life and it makes me happy that girls from other generations are connecting with it and finding something in it. It didn’t have much of a life at the time , it came out.”

And Coppola now has another film in the works following her 2023 biopic “Priscilla.” Coppola confirmed to ELLE that she is in the “early stages” of a new project, which she describes as “not formed yet,” though it will focus on a female character.

“There’s someone I’m fixated on,” she said. “I always love stories where you can relate to the women. I don’t feel like there are many films where I can relate to the female characters at this moment.”