These days teenagers are supposed to get famous by making successful careers as pop singers, actors or fashion models or, if everything else fails, by gunning down their classmates. It is almost inconceivable for a teenager to reach fame by writing best-selling books. In 1954 French author Françoise Sagan did just that, by writing the novel Bonjour Tristesse and becoming a household name before her 20th birthday. The novel was so influential that even Hollywood got interested and four years later Otto Preminger directed its screen adaptation.
The protagonist of the film is Cécile (played by Jean Seberg), a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in Paris together with her rich playboy father Raymond (played by David Niven). Accustomed to all kinds of luxury, Cécile not only approves, but also actually encourages Raymond's decadent lifestyle that involves constant womanising. The two of them are going to spend one summer at their luxurious villa on the French Riviera, accompanied by Raymond's latest girlfriend Elsa (played by Mylène Demongeot). Summer idyll is interrupted with the arrival of Anne (played by Deborah Kerr), Raymond's old love interest, who came to visit their villa. Even the briefest of encounters is enough to re-ignite romance between Anne and Raymond. Soon, Elsa is out of the picture and Raymond and Anne announce their intention to marry. Cécile at first doesn't mind, but when Anne begins establishing her control over Raymond and endangering Cécile's carefree lifestyle, she becomes jealous. Her animosity towards Anne would lead her to conduct a romantic intrigue with unexpected consequences.
The plot of this film, as well as its setting – a closed circle of idle rich people whose lives are one big endless party - is hardly original, and it was used in thousands of soap operas. Director Otto Preminger was quite aware of the shallowness of content, and tried his best to mimic it with style. Bonjour Tristesse is nicely photographed, features good costumes, pretty locations on the French Riviera and a nice musical score by Georges Auric (although the title theme, sung by Juliette Gréco, seems somewhat overplayed). The acting is very good - Jean Seberg is quite convincing as a spoiled and cruel teenage brat, and Deborah Kerr does her best to make her character attractive to Raymond despite having competition in a girl half her age. David Niven, on the other hand, seems quite relaxed in the role of a charming playboy that almost became his trademark. Even Mylène Demongeot brings some texture and charm to a terribly stereotypical role of a brainless bimbo. Unfortunately, Preminger sometimes likes to experiment too much and allows such experiments to get in the way of the story. His idea to make contrast between Cécile's past on the Riviera with her present and equally shallow life in Paris by shooting the latter in black and white seems somewhat snobbish. He also uses Cécile's voiceover narration that is often monotonous and tells the obvious. However, although such experiments fail, Bonjour Tristesse is still a very good film to watch - Hollywood soap opera at its best, nicely done and still entertaining after many decades.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on March 17th 2000)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1937-bonjour-tristesse Critic: AA
