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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Brilliant!", June 7, 2004
This stylish film is one of Otto Preminger's best. The French New Wave has influenced him in his opening shots, but only on a visual level. This is pure Hollywood on ever other level. The melding of the two styles works perfectly and begins by setting the stark mood in stunning black and white widescreen shots of 1958 Paris. The present is painted in shades of grey and silver, where Cecile portrayed by the beautiful Jean Seaberg moves aimlessly thought her pointless upper crust Parisian life. Only when she encounters her father David Niven later in the evening does the past seep in on the edges of the cinemascope frame in vivid color and finally takes over moving us from the present to last summer on the Riviera. The device is used several times as we move from past to present and finally at the end of the film it creates a stunning effect once you know what suddenly happed to Cecile and her father last summer. The thing that changed everything forever and allows Preminger's camera to linger in the last frame of the film on Jean Seaberg as she wipes away the make-up from her perfect face.
David Niven is perfectly cast as Raymond the aging (...) father of Cecile. He has the cool style and humor of a man who can't commit to any woman and treats his daughter like a playmate rather than his child. His particular talents as an actor are that he seems to be playing the "David Niven" character in most of his films but here in `Bonjour' as he often does in so many roles he makes a nice little twist on the "character". He catches you off guard to wrench his and the audiences emotions and prove once again what a good actor he is.
At first Deborah Kerr also seems to be playing her role by rote but it is just a ruse to set us up for her fall. As does Niven she too digs deeper in to her persona as Anne Larson and carries the film to its surprise ending. She is a joy to watch as a film actress and here she is particularly wonderful.
The French actress Mylene Demongeout is delightful as Elsa, Ramon's summer plaything. She is in fact `Brilliant!" in the role.
Geoffrey Horne is decorative and serviceable in his role as Cecile's beau who awakens her (...) .
Jean Seaberg who with her short cropped spiked hair in certain shots reminded me of Sharon Stone has that kind of blonde goddess look that Miss Stone possesses. She was only 19 when she made the film and in the hands of her director she presents us with a sensitive and spellbinding performance as Cecile. She is at once a teenager in turmoil and a young girl on the verge of becoming a woman. This is a delicate high wire act that the young Miss Seaberg executes with charm and elegance. She is festinating to watch and just right for the role.
The subject matter is even today a little shocking and indeed this is one of the films of the 1950's that put the sin in Cinemascope. Despite the restrictions of the day or because of them filmmakers of that time were challenged in ways they are not today. Challenged to be inventive and insinuate things that we were too innocent or too naive to know happen in the world. Those filmmakers knew that the imagination is more vivid and titillating than what they might show. It was good that the antiquated production code of the Hayes office crumbled in the 60's but with it's passing we lost a whole vocabulary in film. Here is a wonderful example of the meeting of the Movies and 50's cinematic innuendo that serves this delicate story to a tee. I think "Bonjour Tristesse" is `Brilliant!'
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Charming story with a good twist in the end, January 6, 2005
I read the novel well over thirty years ago, in Europe, when I was fifteen, but did not get to watch the movie until tonight. I wanted to see it for a sit-down stroll through memory lane, and never expected to be touched by the story and its morale. You see, when I first read the novel, I did not care about it; I was then a fifteen-year old who was dealing with a much harsher existence than the seventeen-year old Cecile's (marvelously portrayed by Jean Seberg), who had the freedom and the money to drive her own car, to smoke, to dance, and hobnob between Paris and the French Riviera with her soft-hearted, caring, and still a child-at-heart, dad. Thus her poor little rich girl's woes, primarily consisting of keeping her dad's love to herself, was boring as well as infuriating. I realize now that I got to read the novel again to reexperience the characters in the manner originally presented by Francoise Sagan.
From the film version I watched tonight, I did not get the sense that it's >>>an accurate account of the empty, amoral, flamboyant and insensitive life in the French "high-life" during the late 50's/early 60's.<<<<
The core of the story is a father (debonair David Niven) and teenage daughter (beautiful imp, Jean Seberg), who lead charming lives and have the good fortune of being each other's friend and confidante. I can't recall a reference as to the manner of the mother's death (re-reading the novel ought to help in that), but neither the father nor the daughter seem to mourn her loss. However one may easily surmise that the father's affectionate and tolerant treatment of his daughter is his way of filling the void of a mother in her life. Although a charming and prolific playboy, he always makes sure that his daughter knows she is number one in his heart, and Cecile never feels threatened by any of his short-lived paramours.
So, on that fateful summer, father and daughter land on the French Riviera for their customary fun-filled R & R. But then a dark cloud appears on Cecile's sunny skies: Anne (portrayed by Deborah Kerr), beautiful, intelligent, elegant, a successful career woman willing to leave her profession (she is a respected fashion designer) to be a perfect wife and astute stepmother; much to Cecile's chagrin her father falls for Anne's charms, pops the question and Anne answers in the affirmative. Overcome by jealousy and the fear of losing her careless butterfly lifestyle, Cecile hatches a diabolic plot to prevent their marriage from occurring. And unfortunately, she succeeds, with tragic consequences.
The morale, of course, is: don't mess with Fate! On the other hand, Cecile, having faced her darker side, builds a wall around her heart to keep herself from feeling pain and sorrow, yet as you watch the closing scene, you will understand that the wall is transparent, letting us look into Cecile's soul as she sits in front of her mirror, taking off her make-up with cream, and by now the scene has reverted to black/silver/white...tears are running down her cheeks... and, ah, tristesse.... bonjur, and bonnuit, always.
The cinematography is superb, the opening and closing scenes are various shades of gray and silver, and then as the story flashes back the French Riviera comes alive in glorious colors, Jean Seberg is just beautiful,her portrayal of Cecile deserving of respect, David Niven sophisticated in an easy-going, warm-hearted way, Deborah Kerr's Anne is perfection, and Juliette Greco, playing herself as the night club singer crooning Bonjour Tristesse in her unique style, a real treat. Be prepared to be surprised at how much you will feel touched, and enjoy.
PS: French author Francoise Sagan, had made international headlines when she was a teenager with her first novel, "Bonjour Tristesse". Her background was privileged, a la her heroine, Cecile's; born Francoise Quoirez to a wealthy family in Cajarc in southwestern France, Sagan - who took her pseudonym from a character in Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" - was educated in private and convent schools at home and in Switzerland. She wrote "Bonjour Tristesse" ("Hello Sadness") in 1953 while on a summer holiday from her studies at the Sorbonne. Sagan, then 18, completed the manuscript in just six weeks.
Interesting to note how the world has changed, since then... upon its release in 1954, Bonjour Tristesse created a furor in France. Some critics scorned it as a tale of "passionless hedonism" and Sagan was called immoral and was marked as symbolizing a generation of bored and blasé young adults. They could not have been more wrong....
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overlooked masterpiece., November 1, 2003
Premminger was a superb director who was greatly appreciated in his day but for some reason is relatively ignored today. Bonjour Tristesse is by far his best and most underrated film, it is a melodrama of sorts but if you're a fan of Douglas Sirk movies like Imitation of Life and Written On The wind then you will love this. Based on the novel of the same name by Francoise Sagan, (apparently regarded as the French`Catcher in the Rye') it's an intelligent and moving film about a daughter,(Seberg) jealous of her father's, (Niven) new lover, (Deborah Kerr.) There's much more to this movie than meets the eye. A black and white present day with the past in colour, the relationship between Seberg and Niven, dubiously close and intimate, the countryside and woods in front of the house, haunting and almost surreal in their depiction. Jean Luc Goddard was apparently a huge fan, Seberg's character in Tristesse was imagined as a continuation in A Bout De Souffle. Deeply moving, intelligent and beautiful, it's an absolute classic that will grow in stature, the Premminger reappraisal begins with this movie.
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