Bonjour Tristesse (film)

Plot

On the French Riviera, Cécile (Jean Seberg) is a decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father, Raymond (David Niven). Anne (Deborah Kerr), a mature and cultured friend of Raymond's late wife, arrives at Raymond's villa for a visit. Cécile is afraid that Anne will disrupt the undisciplined way of life that she has shared with her father.

Despite his promises of fidelity to Anne, Raymond cannot give up his playboy life. Helped by Elsa (Mylène Demongeot), Raymond's young and flighty mistress, Cécile does her best to break up the relationship with Anne. The combination of the daughter's disdain and the father's rakishness drives Anne to a tragic end.

Cast

Critical reception

The film met with a lukewarm critical reception at the time. The BFI's Monthly Film Bulletin: "The best performance is David Niven’s; he gives his part a pathetic touch that the writing never attains. Jean Seberg, who speaks rather than acts her lines, turns in the least effective performance. Bonjour Tristesse is an elegant, ice cold, charade of emotions, completely artificial and eventually torpid." Others enjoyed it rather more and it had some unexpected friends. François Truffaut described Seberg as “The best actress in Europe’. Jean-Luc Godard said "The character played by Jean Seberg [in Breathless] was a continuation of her role in Bonjour Tristesse, I could have taken the last shot of Preminger's film and started after dissolving to a title: "Three years later". A Guardian piece in 2012 described it as “an example of Hollywood's golden age, and both its star and its famously tyrannical director are ripe for rediscovery.”

The film currently holds an 86% approval rating according to Rotten Tomatoes. Critic Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York wrote: "the director uses the expansive CinemaScope frame and his eye for luxuriant, clinical mise en scéne to soberly probe rather than gleefully prod. The cast is across-the-board exemplary. Niven and Kerr keenly satirize their onscreen iconographies—the cad and the goody-goody, respectively—but it’s Seberg who cuts deepest."