Jean Seberg is a largely under-seen screen star among contemporary moviegoers and even cinéastes. I myself was unfamiliar with her work, save maybe Airport (1970), until a couple of years ago when Katrina Longworth, of the absolutely essential podcast, You Must Remember This, embarked on a nine-part journey that chronicled the parallel rise and, in terms of public favor, fall of Jane Fonda and Jean Seberg, circa the late 1950s into the ‘70s. 

That Jane Fonda of all people purportedly envied Seberg, a friend and fellow American expat in ’60s France, for her edgy, avant-garde segues into French New Wave cinema is itself intriguing. But it’s the eclectic filmography of the beleaguered, ill-fated Seberg, who died tragically (at only 40) in the summer of 1979, that actually warrants our collective fascination, examination and ultimately admiration. So, on the heels of the Venice Film Festival premiere of Benedict Andrews’ Seberg, starring a similarly dismissed, then eventually respected actress, Kristen Stewart, let’s stroll through a handful of Seberg’s more seminal works, all (miraculously) available now on various streaming platforms...

Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

Seberg’s second film (and her second—and final—one with the odious director Otto Preminger) pitted her against acting titans and future/should’ve-been Oscar winners, David Niven and Deborah Kerr, in a French Riviera-set melodrama that has to be seen to be believed. [Streaming on YouTube]

 

Breathless (1960)

Her indisputable classic, directed by Jean-Luc Godard and co-starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, was—and still is—a French New Wave sensation. It prompted none other than François Truffaut to hail the pixie-cut Seberg, playing a free-spirited student and aspiring journalist, as “the best actress in Europe.” (Truffaut, incidentally, later tried in vain to cast her in Day for Night, over which I weep.) [Streaming on Criterion Channel]

 

Lilith (1964)

The would-be blockbuster that wasn’t, Joshua Logan’s pricey, star-studded musical surely was trying to capitalize on Lee Marvin’s Oscar-winning turn in Cat Ballou  (1965), on top of a prime-beef Clint Eastwood, vying for the affection/attention of a luminous Seberg. [Streaming on Amazon Prime]

 

Kill! (1972)

Directed by her then-husband Romain Gary, this oh-so-‘70s action drama came along when vendetta flicks like the recently-discussed Death Wish were all the rage. Seberg plays the globe-trotting wife of an Interpol agent who “investigates the freelance killings of drug and porn peddlers.” [Streaming on Amazon Prime]

 

 

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