The Lisbon family has five teenage daughters. After 13-year-old Cecilia commits suicide, her surviving sisters become the object of intense scrutiny by everyone in the town, especially the neighborhood boys, who keep an eye on the girls.
Wishing to shield their daughters from the outside world, the parents gradually cut off all communication with the outside world and forbid their daughters to leave the house.
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A typical American family living in Michigan-father, mother, and five daughters. But are they as ordinary as they first seem?
Five sisters: Cecilia (13), Lux (14), Bonnie (15), Mary (16), and Theresa (17).
Of the girls, the two youngest in particular stand out. Cecilia, essentially still a child, is aloof from others. She is a pronounced introvert, so she is often silent, hovering in the clouds, very vulnerable, writing a diary. Later, the boys (witnesses of those events) read it and learn more about the sisters: ‘Obviously, she was a dreamer. She didn’t find her place in the real world.’
Lux is a real rebel. She doesn’t want to obey any rules more than anyone else and does everything in defiance of her mother. Lynx strives for independence, for freedom…
Yes, the Lisbon girls were brought up according to basic religious precepts. Their mother taught them what she thought was right, forgetting that strictness and laws are not always good. Being married to a weak, small man, she was obliged to stand at the head of the family. Maybe that’s why she was so inwardly distant from her own children. Her mother very rarely showed care, affection, or love. Cecilia tells her about her frog collection, but she makes it clear that she is not interested. Mrs. Lisbon severely punished her daughters for such misdemeanors as going out with boys or being late. Thus, Lynx’s tardiness caused all the girls to suffer – house arrest. By tying her children to herself, locking them in four walls, while at the same time wishing to both teach them a lesson and make them better, the mother ruined the girls. She suppressed their individuality, their essence…
Of course, the mother was not alone to blame for the suicides. The love they longed for turned out to be painful for them. It was all layered together with longing and loneliness. There was a way out, either way. But there wouldn’t have been a movie if the picture hadn’t been distinguished by the tragedy of the story-the girls were too young.
Sofia Coppola’s debut feature is filmed in a more than unusual style. The first thing that catches your eye is the clean, light, burnt-out colors. The director perfectly felt the atmosphere of the 60’s, everything corresponds to the era of American prosperity: Lisbon’s house, the school ball, the clothes, the cars, the cocktail parties…
The cameraman uses unusual plans, angles. For example, the silent dialogue between Trip and the sisters’ father, filmed through the glass door. The camera is now in a static position, then slides, then zooms in, as if improvising.
Of particular importance is the editing: frame-by-frame zooming, cropping, rewinding, overlapping, flashbacks.
Even the manner of narration is noteworthy. The story is told by the boys who were in love with the sisters.
In addition, the picture has elements of a documentary. After all, S. Coppola did not just make a tragic story about the Lisbon sisters, but a film about teenagers prone to suicide in general. We see the TV inserts, the public reaction. ‘There are 80 suicides a day and 30,000 a year in the United States.
In the end we get a wonderful film that shows the problem of suicide from different angles; it is also beautifully made and moral.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (77.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English, English SDH.
