Jean Seberg -- Breathless (Paperback)

~ Garry McGee (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

She was from a large town in Iowa and became the darling of Paris. She alternated between small European films and big Hollywood movies, on the way helping Jean-Luc Godard to shape contemporary cinema. She moved between the worlds of show business and politics, from private and state dinners with leaders to clandestine activities supporting groups and individuals on both sides of the Atlantic. She was a unique person ahead of her time. Breathless tells the story of the woman who, after a disastrous film debut in Saint Joan, became both acclaimed international actress (Lilith, Dead of Summer) and popular star (Paint Your Wagon, Airport). It also tells of the FBI's campaign to "neutralize" Seberg, and the still unsolved mystery of her death in 1979 at the age of 40. Featuring exclusive interviews with family, friends and acquaintances, Jean Seberg - Breathless includes personal letters and obscure quotes from the subject, and more than sixty rare photographs. Iowa-born Garry McGee is a documentary filmmaker and author. Jean Seberg - Breathless is his fourth book. His book with Jean Russell Larson, Neutralized: the FBI versus Jean Seberg, is also being published by BearManor Media.

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: BearManor Media (January 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593931271
• ISBN-13: 978-1593931278
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #73,750 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jean Seberg: New Testament, May 12, 2008

By	Scott Coblio "kookoo guy" (West Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Before Mia, Twiggy & Edie, there was Jean Seberg, the original Pixie. Because her successors were, well, more successful, Jean often gets overlooked when it comes time to dole out the honors to the women who influenced the style, shape & complexion of 60's femininity. Her initial screen persona was as a kind of child-woman, pretty but not overtly sexualized. Throughout her career, her image morphed back and forth through a kind of Tippi Hedren look to the boyish, close-cropped style she had in "Breathless", the film for which she is most known, and which showcased her unique appeal most effectively.

Shirley Maclaine and Audrey Hepburn were in a similar vein with their child-women personas. These actresses all were forging a new kind of feminine identity, with a naturalness that hadn't been seen on the screen before. Of them all, I find Seberg the most interesting screen presence, if not necessarily the best actress. Is it only because she came to a tragic end that she is more compelling and enigmatic on the screen?

Certainly her performances in "Breathless", "Lillith" and even "Bon Jour Tristesse" are little marvels. Acting-wise, she reminds me of Louise Brooks, in as much as her acting doesn't announce itself boldly. It's humble, poetic, watercolory. She is not so in love with her technique that her subtle effects are marred by the bold, show-offy strokes of her "method". She is always beautiful, but in her best work, she is magical too.

Garry McGee has done a commendable job researching and writing Jean's story. At 311 pages, it is satisfyingly dense, and much more than a perfunctory synopsis of her life and infamous death from suicide in 1979. In fact, it's so good you find yourself wishing a bigger publisher had picked it up so the illustrations could be top notch and the format larger.

But the content more than compensates for any graphic deficits. In fact, this book is really the quintessential tome on Seberg now, every bit as good as its predecessor on the subject, "Played Out- The Jean Seberg Story" by David Richard. If you're interested in Seberg, bet both. This one makes an excellent companion piece as it contains additional insights and illuminations, including rare interviews with Jean's sister Mary Ann, unique to this book!.

"Breathless" balances sensitivity with investigative journalism and the result is sure to please both scholars AND fans of the still-resonant star.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jean Seberg: All these years later, she still leaves us "Breathless", July 6, 2009

By	Alan W. Petrucelli (THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI)) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

And you thought Marilyn was tragic.
Garry McGee's "Jean Seberg--Breathless" is the heartbreaking story of the life, loves, life, career and death of one of the most startling beauties ever seen on the silver screen. Perhaps most astounding about Seberg's career is that, although she made a fair number of films with some great (and not so great) directors, only one truly captures her beauty and spirit.
That's not to say the camera wasn't enraptured with Seberg; her beauty prevented her from ever looking in a truly bad light, regardless of her age or weight. Yet "Saint Joan," "Bonjour Tristesse," "Lilith" and "Paint Your Wagon" pale (and eventually fade) when compared to Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 New Wave masterpiece, "Breathless." Save Garbo in "Queen Christina," no other movie actress has ever looked so beautiful on the movie screen.
McGee's narrative is both nimble and inclusive, seldom pausing for theory but compiling the events and facts which led up to a tragedy of near-epic proportion. Literally picked out of thousands for someone to play the title role in Otto Preminger "Saint Joan" (1957), this unsure, insecure girl from Marshalltown, Iowa was thrust into the limelight of stardom and international politics.
From her rise through mediocre movies to international success, through her great love and eventual marriage to novelist and diplomat Romain Gary, to her eventual suicide (or possible murder) brought about by her involvement with the Black Panther movement and resulting persecution by J. Edgar Hoover, McGee is riveting in style and content.
There are really no heroes or villains here, except Hoover who really does deserve to continue burning in the deepest pit of hell. Yet the author draws a portrait of the machinations of cold war intrigue and politics, as well as the rise, persecution and fall of a provincial American movie star who becomes both a symbol and a locus of hatred for the American spy system. Today,
Seberg's story would make a brilliant motion picture, truly capturing the mores and folkways of the time; the problem is, who is beautiful enough to play her?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ahead of her time, June 2, 2008

By	E. Freese (Iowa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book because my husband grew up near Seberg's hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa, and he always wanted to know more about her. He doesn't read much except farm magazines and veterinary journals, but he read this book almost every night and enjoyed it. It has the right combination of childhood background, photos, movie industry gossip, and film history. A tragic and fascinating story of a young woman thrust into films without enough supervision and guidance.