MovieChat Forums > Bonjour tristesse Discussion > Truffaut, Cahiers and Jean

Truffaut, Cahiers and Jean

posted 15 years ago by remey
8 replies | jump to latest

When Bonjour Tristesse opened in France, Cahiers du cinema put Jean on its cover, calling her "the new divine of the cinema".

Francois Truffaut wrote: "When Jean Seberg is on the screen, which is all the time, you can't look at anything else. Her every movement is graceful, each glance is precise. the shape of her head, her silhouette, her walk, everything is perfect: this kind of sex appeal hasn't been seen on the screen.

It is designed, controlled, directed to the nth degree by her director. It is Otto Preminger's love poem to her. Jean Seberg, short blond hair on a pharoah's skull, wide-open blue eyes with a glint of boyish malice, carries the entire weight of this film on her tiny shoulders."

The weekly magazine "Arts" voted Jean Seberg the winner of the ANNUAL "Best feminine interpretation" award for Bonjour Tristesse and she became the darling of Paris.

There was a contradictory dark luminosity in Jean which would have required clever handling from insightful directors to give it safe conduct and cathartic expression. An exquisite and vulnerable sensitivity brought personal trauma for lack of right direction, sadly.

[–] prjdean 15 years ago

remey

what a great post !

I did not realize that Jean Seberg had won such adulation upon the initial release of the film in France.. It helps explain why so much of her life and work was done there.

I love what Truffaut wrote about her -- I have to agree with him - if only Jean had been guided/nurtured by others like Preminger and Goddard , she would be remembered as one of the greatest stars ever .

I was glad to help with the dvd of BT btw...

philippe

[–] remey 15 years ago

Thank you, philippe,

The rediscovered Bonjour Tristesse is now hailed as a masterpiece, at least within the european milieu of critics. The respect the French held for Jean was so great that on the day of her funeral, programming on French television was pre-empted to pay homage to her by showing Bonjour Tristesse.

American critics were very severe with Jean. They missed entirely the unique person she was, ahead of her time, an idealist. So, inevitably fated to pay the unenviable price society forces on those of mis-comprehended merit. This film records her brilliant potential for all to reflect upon. Very glad you like it.

[–] remey 15 years ago

Jean & Romain are remembered in a subjective account of the life of Alexandre Diego Gary, their son. * S. ou l’espérance de vie * published this April or translated as "S. or Life Expectancy" from Gallimard.

So-called objective judgements made of one's parents < lived > reality, tend to arise out of unmet - pressing needs, harboured since youth & unresolved into maturity. The book's material adds to the miasma of data always bubbling lava-like near the surface of the Seberg legend.

Her mythology refuses collapse. Society’s need is urgent for comprehension of the dark feminine goddess role in which women are called to deepen themselves through the shadowed, (unconscious) elements of their being. Death/rebirth rituals are poorly understood. A film of her life made with right concern for myth, with an informed director such as John Boorman or Bertrand Tavernier, would be the litmus test required for ripping the entrails out of shallow, banal, clichéd films.
An Arkey Whitely (* Gallowglass ),{also early deceased} could have inhabited the role with a perceptive depth, essential. We live in hope. Jean lived in the public gaze.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] nfaust1 15 years ago

I share your love of this actress. Truffaut's words apply even in questionable films: you just can't take your eyes off her. From Iowa to Paris, where she's buried (I've visited her grave), the woman's trauma certainly gives one pause, but the degree to which she lived and, for a time, transcended her roots, the critics, and even expectations, is like a myth made flesh. Your statement here is much appreciated.

[–] Jamal-Nazreddin 12 years ago

I'm sorry. I have to separate the private life from the person on screen.

I was distressed at some scenes where the intrusive camera was pointed up her groin. She was practically nude some scenes.

The character was a spoilt, capricious teenager.

[–] nfaust1 12 years ago

Jamal-Nazreddin, I don't think any of these messages mistakenly transpose the actress for the character she's playing; and though I understand what your statement literally means, I don't see what it has to do with Truffaut's comment.

Having watched the movie a number of times, I don't recall the kind of embarrassing, exploitative intrusion you mention.

[–] Jamal-Nazreddin 12 years ago

^ Yes, you may be right. So perhaps the those tribute posts above mine belong in a general thread about this teenager from Marshalltown, Iowa rather than in a thread about the film 'Bonjour Tristesse'.

The scene I'm thinking of is about midway through. The quinquagenarian father is lying prone near the water in ridiculously-short shorts, with feet on the left and head on the right. The quinquagenarian producer's camera man trawls across his knees as the Iowan teenager skips in and lies prone beside the father. The teenager is wearing similarly-short cotton shorts which have creased and newly expose the white flesh beneath. The camera man trawls even closer and almost captures the pudenda.