Emma - Edit Analysis: The Virgin Suicides

The film that I’m going to be analysing is the 1999 film The Virgin Suicides directed by Sofia Coppola. One of the main continuity edits that we see throughout the duration of this film is the Shot Reverse Shot technique. This is often used to show both what the character who is speaking is saying but also how the other characters in the scene are reacting. The example taken from this film is when a minor character is telling the boys about how he found Cecilia after her first ‘attempt’. It’s important that this technique is used so that the audience can get as much information from the scene as they can get.

Another continuity edit technique that is often found in The Virgin Suicides is Eye-line Match. This example was taken from the therapist scene near the beginning of the movie. The scene starts with Cecilia looking at something off camera which then turns out to be a therapist holding an inkblot test which we see after the cut. Another technique used in this scene is that it seems to take on a blue hue which evokes emotion from the audience and adds a melancholy feel to the scene which contrasts to some other shots throughout the film that are well lit and take on a yellow hue which lead the audience into believing that it is a happier scene.

A Fade Out/Fade In transition is used between Cecilia’s death and what the audience presume is her funeral. This is both to showcase that some time has passed since the scene that we last saw but it also makes for a softer transition between two upsetting scenes instead of a harsh cut. 

At one point in The Virgin Suicides muted colours are used to suggest to the audience that what they’re seeing is a memory. This helps to distinguish between what is happening is real time and what is a flash black. Overlap transitions are also used throughout the memory with Cecilia narrating from her diary to show that the audience is still seeing memories from her childhood but also to highlight that they are different and separate memories of her sisters. This allows the audience to see the Lisbon family in a way that the other on-screen characters do not and therefore allows them to get an extra piece of the story without confusion.

Crosscutting or parallel editing, as it is sometimes called, is used in a particular scene to evoke emotion in the audience and to create intensity. The technique is used to show different families, shot from the same angle, watching the same news programme about Cecilia. The scene is continuous and has a great effect on the audience by showing not only how the suicide affected Cecilia’s family but others too which builds onto the information that the audience already has and creates a richer story.

A montage of clips moving from day to night is used in The Virgin Suicides to portray how much time has passed. These clips are shot from the same angle and helps the audience to understand that the film has now entered a different season.