Bonjour Tristesse
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Movie Reviews of Bonjour Tristesse
Movie Review: Another study in a teenage girl's destructive dislike for her widowed father's lover...
Summary: 3 Stars
The films of Otto Preminger share for the most part a detached objectivity in their attitudes to character and moral issues...
In "Bonjour Tristesse," his gamine protégé Cecile (Jean Seberg) is a very peculiar girl, maybe spoiled and willful and arrogant and lazy...
Anne (Deborah Kerr) had made her look at herself for the first time in her life...And that turned her against her... And now, her father is not having fun anymore, which was probably another reason she decided to get rid of her... How carefully and how seriously she went about that decision, is the tale of Françoise Sagan, published in 1954, by the time she was nineteen...
Raymond (David Niven) is a bundle of surprises... For him, it's such a wonderful fun to have Cecile for a daughter... And loving Anne doesn't mean that he loves his daughter any less... The wealthy playboy becomes serious from the moment that Anne arrived... He could never think of her as just someone to have fun with... He does have fun with Elsa (Mylène Demongeot) but that's a long way from being all he wants... Now, he has never wanted any woman the way he wants Anne...
Anne spent her honeymoon by the sea 12 years ago... She had quite a debate with herself before coming down to the French Riviera... For knowing that Elsa was there, she got stupidly angry and decided to leave...Then the prospect of packing and looking for a hotel was too much after that long drive so she decided to stay...
Being too sophisticated (maybe for discovering occupied territory), Anne was as suspicious of summer as she was of Raymond in spite of the fact that she knew him 15 years ago, and was quite sure that with him, nobody is safe...
For Cecile, Anne is prim and prissy and prude... For a woman who hates vulgarities--even when they're funny--she could never be seriously interested in a man like her father... So part of her was angry, part was happy, all of her was excited... Her father had brought a girl to the seashore, made her go out in the sun and then when she was a mess of peeling, dropped her like a hot lobster... It was unfair... Yet even while she was angry at him, she was proud that he had gotten the unattainable Anne... Anne looks now softer... She moves easier... In the morning, she seems as though she had the most wonderful secret in the world...
Suddenly she becomes aware of a great responsibility towards Cecile, as it would be good if she stops seeing Philippe (Geoffrey Horne) and studies for her philosophy examination...
Cecile becomes furious at her interference... Anne wants her to study and not to see Philippe... So what shall it be? For her, there'll be a man to take care of her...And she doesn't need a diploma for that...
Now she hates Anne... For her, she has changed her father...She'll change her and will change everything...
Movie Review: Absolutely nothing new...
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't really understand the love and adoration for this film. It is decent at best, but it lacks any and all real definitive originality to make it a memorable or even commendable film. Aside from Kerr, who is remarkably moving, the acting is awkward. Niven is serviceable but nothing to write home about (he won the Oscar this year for the better of his performances) and while I adore Seberg and consider her turn in `Breathless' to be utterly stunning, here she is as amateur as they come.
She is trying way too hard, and it shows.
The film strikes a familiar chord with a jealous daughter who works hard to disrupt the budding relationship between her father and his new beau, a woman who seems all to comfortable playing `mother'. Cecile is a spoiled and rather outlandish young woman who would rather drink and flirt and party than study. Her father Raymond fancies her to the point where he overlooks all of her obvious flaws, allowing her to slip away in debauchery. When Anne, a proper and intelligent woman, enters their lives it becomes apparent that her stay is going to be too much of a positive influence on the pair and thus something MUST be done, especially when Raymond really starts to fall in love with her.
Alas, the obvious unfolds (even if the overly tragic ending is not one I expected).
What I find rather shocking is that so many tote this as an underrated gem, when in my opinion it isn't like this film really earns that pedigree. Like I mentioned, it is fine and all, but it doesn't elevate the material or present us with anything we haven't seen done many times before. The ambiguous relationship between Cecile and her father, with someone uncomfortable to entertain, is really the most interesting piece to the puzzle, but it is never explored with any depth or real certainty. It is left hovering over us like an unspoken rule and so we are left wondering how astute the film COULD have been had it attempted to flesh out the realities of that relationship.
That said, Deborah Kerr is marvelously used, with the perfect pitch and tone to her performances, creating someone we can rally behind and firmly believe in.
I see where this could have been a really stunning portrait of father/daughter bonds, but instead it becomes a school-girl fantasy of love, lies and tragedy that never adds anything new or exciting to the catalog of familiar and similar films.
Oh yeah, and it's not `French' enough!
Movie Review: 'Whoops'
Summary: 3 Stars
Would've been more captivating had it been the first time I'd seen this kind of movie, but it wasn't. Technical aspects held my interest -- especially the cinematography; the use of black and white for the present and color for flashbacks was effective. The performances were okay. Jean Seberg is easy on the eyes. Her real life story is more interesting than any of her film roles. It's an inkblot.Movie Review: good product, not delivered on time
Summary: 3 Stars
Product is good. Not delivered on intended date. I paid extra for quick arrival, but it did not arrive as stated. Disappointing. Will consider this the next time I order anything on here again (if I do order anything).Movie Review: The Cocktail on the cover art is the best thing about the film!
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a boring, tedious film. The director has no interest in the screenplay, his actors (most of whom are bored beyond description), or, for that matter, anything else. And, Geoffrey Horne! He was the closest thing Hollywood had to a male Bella Darvi! Any wonder his career went absolutely nowhere.
One or two saving graces, however: Georges Auric's score and the great Saul Bass's credits.