TIFF: "Bonjour Tristesse"... but with cell phones

by Matt St Clair

Photo Credit: Giacomo Bernasconi

When the 1958 film adaptation of the novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan was released, it was both a beacon for the arrival of star Jean Seberg and a showcase for six-time Oscar-nominated legend Deborah Kerr to play with her star persona. Kerr’s interpretation of the high-strung Anne Larsen was a send-up of her “proper English ladies” casting niché that simultaneously allowed her to play into her sex appeal seen previously in From Here to Eternity and An Affair to Remember. 

The newest film adaptation from author-turned-director Durga Chew-Bose follows the same story beat-for-beat...

The story involves a girl named Cécile (Lily McInerny), her father Raymond (Claes Bang), and Raymond’s younger lover Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune) spending a tranquil summer in France disrupted by Anne Larsen (Chloë Sevigny), an old friend of Cécile’s deceased mother whose arrival challenges Cécile and her father’s hedonistic lifestyle.

At least Chloë Sevigny’s performance helps differentiate the film from the ‘58 Preminger picture. Compared to Deborah Kerr’s more abstruse approach to the character, Sevigny is unambiguous in how she presents Anne. With her cutting frigidity as she walks confidently in her wardrobe, Sevigny taps further into Anne’s despotic nature. Impressing in equal measure is lead actress Lily McInerny who previously broke through with a spellbinding turn in the gritty indie drama Palm Trees and Power Lines. McInerny seamlessly captures the familiar frustrations over a parent’s new partner appearing in your life out of nowhere telling you which way to live. Plenty of us have had that experience and a likely urge to scheme for said partner to vacate our lives harmlessly. However, Cécile acts on those urges. 

Meanwhile, Claes Bang is a blithe screen presence as Cécile’s laid-back father while Naïlia Harzoune is a breakout as Elsa who’s both a foil for the conservative Anne and eventual willing accomplice in Cécile’s scheme. As the actors compel, cinematographer Maximilian Pittner lenses scenes of banal activity like people laying in the sun or even cutting fruit that feel plucked from a classic European drama with a similar exotic locale. 

At the same time, because Bonjour Tristesse has an old-school look and follows the same story, it still feels like a retread of the Otto Preminger version. Whether this film veers a tad closer to the novel I can’t say. But minus Chloë Sevigny’s distinctive characterization of the former Deborah Kerr role, the latest version of Bonjour Tristesse just feels like the ‘58 film only with a modern setting. C

Bonjour Tristesse made its world premiere in the Discovery section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.