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Bonjour Tristesse Details

1958

60
from 635 members

Starring	Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg, Mylene Demongeot
Director	Otto Preminger
Genres	Drama

Bonjour Tristesse

Francoise Sagan's bittersweet novel Bonjour Tristesse is given a sumptuous Riviera-filmed screen treatment. David Niven plays a wealthy playboy, the father of teenaged libertine-in-the-making Jean Seberg. Seberg tolerates most of her father's mistresses, but doesn't know what to make of the prudish Deborah Kerr, who will not cohabit with Niven until after they're married. Feeling that her own relation with her father will be disrupted by Kerr's presence, Seberg does her malicious best to break up the relationship--only to be beaten to the punch by Niven, who despite his promises of fidelity to Kerr cannot give up his hedonistic lifestyle. The combination of the daughter's disdain and the father's rakishness drive Kerr to suicide. Niven and Seberg continue pursuing their lavish but empty lifestyle, though both realize that their lack of moral fibre has destroyed a life. The incestuous undertones of the original Sagan novel are only slightly downplayed in the film version; the tristesse (sadness) is visually conveyed by filming the Deborah Kerr flashback scenes in color and the opening and closing of the film in bleak black and white. Bonjour Tristesse was codirected by Otto Preminger, who'd previously discovered Jean Seberg for his benighted 1957 filmization of Saint Joan.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Starring	Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg, Mylene Demongeot, Geoffrey Horne, Juliette Greco, Walter Chiari
Director	Otto Preminger
Studio	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 30 mins
Certificate
Genres	Drama
Language	DVD: English
Dubbed	French, German, Italian, Spanish
Subtitles	DVD: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish
Released	Production year: 1958 To Rent: DVD: 01 Aug 2005

Critic's review of Bonjour Tristesse
View all critics' reviews (2)
- The novel's rather repellent characters are here played like royal personages against a background of Riviera opulence. The result is very odd but often entertaining, especially when it slips into self-parody.
- 34908
- - Halliwell's Film Guide
  - 02 Mar 2006 at 15:44
Most helpful member's review of Bonjour Tristesse
View all members' reviews (10)
- - 2
  - 0
  Soapy Stuff from Seberg
  
  I don't suppose many people have ever heard of this film, but it's well worth seeing , if only for the central performance of Jean Seberg. She plays a... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 144213
- [Highly rated reviewer]
  - a customer
  - Whitley Bay
  - 25 Aug 2005 at 16:47
Most recent members' reviews of Bonjour Tristesse
View all members' reviews (10)
- - 1
  - 0
  Adolescence on the Riviera
  
  I saw this film only once before, on a b+w tv in the 60s, so I missed then the heavy symbolism that the present is in b+w, while the past is in colour. How ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 946858
- - Leni
  - 179 reviews
  - London
  - 14 Dec 2010 at 17:15
- - 1
  - 0
  Hello dullness
  
  From nouvelle vague to old tosh, Jean Seberg is one of the few things that make this at all interesting. But she was much better in Godard. Niven and Kerr are ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 876894
- - MichaelKenward
  - 25 reviews
  - Staplefield, Sussex
  - 26 Mar 2010 at 11:02
- - 0
  - 0
  Tristesse? - just cinematic distress.
  
  This really is abysmal, asinine, and embarrassing. The director has obviously instructed the main actors to represent frivolity and pointless pleasure; seeing... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 817024
- - sue beer
  - Fleet, Hampshire
  - 02 Oct 2009 at 17:45
View all members' reviews (10)
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Rating breakdown

635 Member ratings

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- Bonjour Tristesse
  
  Francoise Sagan's bittersweet novel Bonjour Tristesse is given a sumptuous Riviera-filmed screen treatment. David Niven plays a wealthy playboy, the father of teenaged libertine-in-the-making Jean Seberg. Seberg tolerates most of her father's mistresses, but doesn't know what to make of the prudish ...