the virgin suïcides book barnes and noble

It was just a low-budget production and creating a period film with limited resources is tough. The whole thing was a challenge, though, and not just because the financing fell apart the week before shooting. ‘I loved hanging around sets – that’s how I learned to be a film-maker’ … with her father Francis Ford Coppola in 1988. It was kind of her first role not being a kid actress. I remember being struck by her bubbly, all-American cheerleader look – and then this depth in her eyes, a wise sadness combined with all her effervescence. I would say: “But Dad, this is how I do it.”Kirsten Dunst, who plays Lux, was 16 when we were casting. He would tell me to shout “Action!” louder so they knew I was in charge. When he did visit, he was kind of nervous. Although he wasn’t there on set very much, he really mentored me. He always said the most important thing about a movie is the acting and the writing. We have a family film company, American Zoetrope, so I really had my dad’s support. Because I was still in my 20s, the idea of school wasn’t far away. But I wanted to treat them with respect, to look properly at that deep, emotional time. There aren’t a lot of quality art films made for young audiences. Often, movies about teenagers are dumbed down with cheap photography. This gave me a connection to The Virgin Suicides, which is also about loss. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, it was personal: when I was 15, my eldest brother Gio died suddenly in a boating accident. I made The Virgin Suicides, my first feature-length film, a little later.

Easier than the dinner scene … Coppola directing Danny De Vito in The Virgin Suicides.

The virgin suïcides book barnes and noble