Bonjour Tristesse
When I was 18, I was smitten by the idea of “Bonjour Tristesse” but without even knowing anything about the story itself, I was sort of scared of reading the book. A coming of age book by a French girl who is leading a decadent life with nothing to do, I was imagining smoking melancholy in black and white – and got scared although I never smoked. In fact, this movie is nothing like I ever imagined “Bonjour Tristesse” to be, except for the fact that I can identify myself strangely with it.
Luckily I don’t lead such a decadent life and melancholy and emptiness is the last thing I have in my life. Apart from that though, I am very in love with the details of the film: Anne’s white, completely useless cap; Cécile’s playing with men and comparison chart with Anne; this amusing Marilyn-Monroe-type woman and her wonderful straw hat; what I love the most are the black and white “French style” scenes in the bars of Paris. I think they give the film a nice frame and show to me yet again what a great director Otto Preminger is. Sadness is what ultimately prevails in this film and I think that was conveyed perfectly throughout the superficial happiness.
Unfortunately I’m not a great fan of Jean Seberg’s acting and I actually hate how this film is spoken in English altogether. Everything is supposed to look and feel French, I’m quite an idiot for not having just decided to see a French dub or something. It’s a perfectly French film except the main character don’t speak French, now how weird is that? For me it destroyed the mood a little bit, since the film relies on this French atmosphere very much.
Finally I must say that I liked how the happenings in the film came together, and I find the characterizations of all characters quite well done. Though I assume that the book is ultimately better than the film, I have lost interest in it now. The mystery of “Bonjour Tristesse” had been uncovered for me, and what rests there is the memory of a good movie that I couldn’t take my eyes off.