1958 was quite the year for French novelist Françoise Sagan, who had not one but two film versions of her works given the Hollywood treatment: A Certain Smile and Bonjour Tristesse . The latter was directed by Otto Preminger to mixed reviews despite a starry cast including David Niven, Deborah Kerr and newcomer Jean Seberg who had made her debut in Preminger’s Saint Joan the year before. She was enthralling, but the Preminger take of Sagan’s coming-of-age tale set on the French Riviera is largely forgotten today. Both studio films had the feel of a lavish soap so popular for these widescreen romantic dramas of the time. Now we have a new take.
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Though Bonjour Tristesse has also since been made a couple of times for French TV, this is the first major international film version since Preminger’s, and it is a gorgeous-looking, quite lilting tale of an 18-year-old girl’s awakening that actually caused a scandal when Sagan, then 18 herself, published her book. Certainly she knew the territory and the emotions to deliver a coming-of-age story that caught on and made her a sensation. In today’s world this may all seem slight, but young audiences might just find something to relate with here as our main character, Cecile (Lily McInerny), spends the last days of a carefree French summer with her father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his lover Elsa (Nailia Harzoune) who isn’t that much older than Cecile — perhaps the reason she gets along with her so well despite missing her late mother.
Cecile spends her days with boyfriend Cyril (Aliocha Schneider) hitting the picaresque beach, kissing if not going much further, still a girl but unquestionably on the cusp of womanhood. This ideal life does not last for long when her father announces that New York fashion designer Anne (Chloe Sevigny), an old friend of his and her mother is coming to stay with them. The visit starts out fine as Anne and Raymond relive old times, but it gets quite chilly despite the sun-baked surroundings when Raymond begins falling romantically for Anne, something that ends the relationship with Elsa and sets Cecile off in ways that can be dangerous, including an impulsive unannounced visit to Cyril’s bedroom one night, waking him up for a steamy sexual encounter. She also returns to Elsa, attempting to take sides when Anne tries to win her approval to no avail. Events careen out of control.
This in debuting Montreal-based director and screenwriter Durga Chew Bose’s hands feels more true to Sagan’s novel and becomes a more complex tale of the nature of female relationships, the mysteries within and their winding paths. The men here are more objects than fully fleshed-out characters as Cecile, Anne and Elsa find their lives intertwining in ways none of them might have predicted during the end of an idyllic summer. Perhaps it took a woman to expose those aspects of Sagan’s still beloved novel, and Bose succeeds in getting straight to the aching heart of Cecile, as does McInerny who might remind you of a young Audrey Hepburn. She does just fine in showing off the contradictions of a young woman torn in different directions. Sevigny is a strong presence here, but I didn’t quite feel the attraction between her and Raymond, the component so important to driving the storyline, but we have to go with it. Harzoune’s Elsa is so charming you just can’t understand why Raymond would suddenly dispose of her except the age angle which is ironically clearly Anne’s advantage.
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Maximilian PIttner’s stunning sunlit cinematography makes Bonjour Tristesse ‘s location (it was shot in Cassis) a vacation destination, especially if you can also rent that villa they are at. Lesley Barber’s lyrical score also helps the mood.
Producers are Lindsay Tapscott and Katie Bird Nolan. It is looking for distribution.
Title: Bonjour Tristesse
Festival: Toronto (Discovery)
Director-screenwriter: Durga Chew Bose
Cast: Chloe Sevigny, Claes Bang, Lily McInerny, Nailia Harzoune, Aliocha Schneider, Nathalie Richard
Sales agents: UTA (domestic); Film Constellation (international)
Running time: 1 hr 50 mins
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