Movie Reviews for Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour Tristesse

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Movie Reviews of Bonjour Tristesse

Movie Review: An Impressive Film in all Aspects! Why?
Summary: 5 Stars

This film has several elements that are worth noting. First, it is an accurate account of the empty, amoral, flamboyant and insensitive life in the French "high-life" during the late 50's/early 60's. Told in flashback, the story shows the way the central characters behave, have fun, hurt people and get to a point when "have fun" is just a way of forgetting.

The whole cast is excelent. David Niven is the most perfect "late life" bachelor who is cool about everything. Jean Seberg is absolutely beautiful as a teenager who practically lives as a woman... the chemistry of the two characters (father and daughter) is fantastic (and very puzzling). Deborah Kerr has also a great role as a sophisticated woman who doesn't get to understand the games going on between father and daughter.

The film has a beautiful cinematography. It opens in a dark black and white while all the flashback scenes are in the most fantastic colors - a perfect example how cinematography serves to enhance the character's point of view and (also) tell the story at a visual level.

The final scene is something that will stay in your memory for a long time as a great example of a great conclusion for a story that is rich and well written.

This film is a serious study of aloofness, emptyness and amorality in a way that only Hollywood could tell. It shows that money can buy off some consciences while, deep inside, some consiences cannot be bought.

A trully great cinematic experience!!!
This DVD edition has no extras (except for trailers). The image quality is first rate. So is sound quality. The opening titles (by Saul Bass, no less!) is gorgeous! The cinemascope cinematography by Georges Perinal begs to be viewd in a big screen. The music score by the great Georges Auric ("Rififi" and "La Bele et la Bête") is top.

Movie Review: OTTO PREMINGER, OPUS 24
Summary: 5 Stars

****1/2 1958. this film was based on Françoise Sagan bestseller Bonjour Tristesse: A Novel (P.S.) and was produced and directed by Otto Preminger. A wealthy playboy and his seventeen years old daughter Cécile live an insouciant life. They are spending the summer on the French Riviera when one of Raymond's old friend Anne comes to their house near the sea. Cécile imagines a scheme to get rid of the intruder when Raymond decides to marry Anne. Preminger chose two actors who already worked for him, David The Moon Is Blue [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ] Niven and Jean Saint Joan [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ] Seberg in order to give life to Sagan's characters. And they are superb in these roles. With the sublime Deborah Kerr as Anne the intruder, our pleasure is complete. Also note the titles by Saul Bass, the song BONJOUR TRISTESSE sung by the French icon Juliette Gréco and the smart idea to film the flashbacks in color and the present in black & white. Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Overlooked masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars

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.

Movie Review: Hello, Gorgeous!
Summary: 5 Stars

BONJOUR TRISTESSE, like many Preminger films, is ripe for reevaluation, and this spiffy new DVD transfer may help spur on that long-overdue second look. Seberg's performance was much-maligned in its day, but she looks smashing here and acts with considerable wit and poise; our girl's a long way from Marshalltown. True, vocally she's perhaps not ideal, but certainly sounds as Gallic as co-stars Kerr and Niven. The material plays with all three stars' images in fascinating ways; Seberg's ingenue is lethal, Kerr, frequently neurotic, was never presented as a creature of such moral ambiguity, and Niven's all suave facade covering inner corruption, in a performance akin to his Oscar-winning turn in SEPARATE TABLES. Wonderful location photography, and great fun to hear the title tune keep turning up in a variety of arrangements, in best 50's-movie-theme-song tradition. The comparison others have made on this site to the glorious Sirk melodramas is apt; the picture transcends genre in many of the same ways. Preminger and company manage to get under your skin.