The 1958 version of the film “Bonjour Tristesse” is not something that would be embraced within Hollywood these days. Why? Because it is the work of a well-known mean, allegedly, woman-hating director who decided to take on a story developed by and about a teenage French girl: “He used me like a Kleenex and then threw me away,” so said Jean Seberg regarding Otto Preminger, the Director of the movie. But how about trying to work out what this adaptation, however bad, might be about and how it might look like if, say, a woman made the film and interpreted the words of Francois Sagan. And how does that feel like as a viewer? In other words, how style in cinema comes together with personality, and how Francois Sagan’s personality could have embellished such a project if she were the one directing it.
The reality in this regard is almost never straightforward. Spin is always the most important thing. In this case, the spin is “impressionistic retelling” in the words of Chew-Bose where she tells the audience to focus on the “spheres of sensations” involved: the heat of the sun on the skin “Cote d`Azur”, or the coolness of ice blocks. For a viewer that imagines themselves on vacation in the south of France, these imaginations may seem enticing, however, just directing itself towards the immersion of emotions seems deceivingly promising. For starters, Chew-Bose first film is not memorable for its potential or originality.
Chew-Bose is more liberal in her considerations of what compels the daughter, a younger Cécile played by Seberg in the earlier version and now by Lily McInerny, to step into the father’s love affairs. But it is all so gossamer and rather astonishingly wrong that the fresh one will make the circuits, get a couple of fans and then fade into oblivion, doing little to displace the film by Preminger.
In the case of Cécile’s parent Claes Bang (of ‘The square’), who played a rather dapper Raymond Cécile who was accompanied by his latest flame, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune) who was once accompanied by his latest flame Raymond Cécile is quite dapper as always. Although Cécile is aware that her father’s philandering is typical of a scheming widower, she feels challenged when he invites one of her mother’s friends, Aunty Anne (Chloë Sevigny) and all but pops the question to her. There is nothing about Anne that caters to dad’s taste and Sevigny doesn’t try to persuade us otherwise. Like a true daughter of a master schemer in love (who should really be in a Shakespeare comedy or perhaps “The Parent Trap” instead), Cécile decides to come up with a plan that will drive the couple apart.
There is a startling connection between Seberg’s performance in the previous film and her playing herself in Loach’s more contemporary film. In Seberg’s case, she once observes herself in the green-room mirror of the studio and, even though the obstinate pixie-blonde hair has its career-making role in Godard’s “Breathless,” she seems to say: “It’s not his fault anymore that you don’t love him. It is yours. You are pampered. And stubborn. And smug. And idle.” Although Chew-Bose gives Cécile a hard time, she is not so much inclined to take such a limited psychological explanation and instead urges us to relate to the teenager to make bummer summer uniquely ours, as though the remnants of her sorrow and her memories were ours.
When it comes to pacing, so much of the film is devoted to simply basking in those sequences that may seem supremely effortless, yet, thanks to gifted DP Maximilian Pittner, have been painstakingly composed to give a very contemporary interpretation of boredom to the viewer: Cécile reaching the keyhole of her boyfriend’s back, getting him to tattoo her secret messages, or catching up on some beauty sleep in a mustard chair bred for low altitude. And even the way she spreads the butter on her toast stays with you.
Some will certainly think of the works of Sofia Coppola while watching this movie where Chew-Bose is interested in what other directors consider peripheral. There are traces of ‘Call Me by Your Name’ here as well with the pining for a teenage Cécile, and a more mature Cécile in the adult sense of the word. However, the reference which seems most appropriate is Jacqueline’s Deray’s ‘La Piscine,’ which had Alain Delon and Romy Schneider around the swimming pool nearly ten years after the film of Preminger.
For no reason at all and for many bad reasons Chew-Bose sets her narrative in the near present (at one point Raymond tells Cécile to throw her iPhone out to the sea). This, in contrast, tragically ignores the sexual revolution that Sagan’s novel seemed to predict. The source material was supposed to be ahead of its time. Now it seems out of sync, and Cécile’s almost virginal seduction of Cyril (Aliocha Schneider) is shockingly only in its improbable restraint.
On a contemporary note, there are several signposts relatively present in the film ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ However, it is evident that ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ being set in mid-twentieth century is a mood film, with it’s own sense of style and aesthetics. At the same time, the film does not shy away from making use of an extravagant set design, complete with the introduction of surf rock to give the film a laid back feeling. On what can be referred to as stirring views, there are color tiles that also find space under the opening credits. Here, it is hard to beat original compositions, such as those penned by Saul Bass specifically for the title sequence. It is worthy to notice period features such as fashion where Chloе Sevigny and Kate McInerney depict vintage style and HH Seaha.
But why cast Charlotte for a role that is supposed to be dull? A cosmopolitan scold does not suit her. Charles Burnett’s film Australian War Actress is shot through a lens of slightly cringe as if Luca Guadagnino imitated mascara by placing Tilda Swinton in ‘La Piscine’ Tzeng seems to adore great and unusual artists but there is no effort to toe the line drawn by the context of the story being shot. The storyline and the visual tragedies of these films are almost also quite different from one another at least from the intent perspective.
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