Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

87% of critics liked it
(15 reviews)
68% of users liked it
(1,411 ratings)

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… More 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, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 34 min.
Directed By: Otto Preminger
Written By: Françoise Sagan, Arthur Laurents
Genres: Drama, Romance, Classics

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1958 Wide
On DVD: Dec 16, 2003

Critic Reviews

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice
Otto Preminger's formally dazzling 1958 film is an edifice constructed of contrasts.
Variety Staff, Variety
Script deficiencies and awkward reading -- some lines are spoken as though just that -- have static results.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
A bomb.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Arguably, this is Preminger's masterpiece.
Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York
Niven and Kerr keenly satirize their onscreen iconographies-the cad and the goody-goody, respectively-but it's Seberg who cuts deepest.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Misunderstood at the time and still underappreciated, this 1958 glossy melodrama improves on Sagan's French novella, displaying Preminger's best qualities as auteur, moral ambiguity, detached, nonjudgmental approach, not to mention smooth visuals.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Has a glacial tone that gets covered with a lobster red French Riviera sunburn.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Kerr, of course, is a standout talent in spite of script deficiencies, and Demongeot plays the role of a silly blonde well. The Riviera scenes are rich in eye appeal and Kerr's chic costuming by Givenchy adds another plus.
, Time Out
The flirtation with incest at the centre of this adaptation of Françoise Sagan's novel is tame by modern standards, but the evil scheming of Seberg as the daughter set on separating her father and his mistress is still forceful.
David Sanjek, PopMatters
While some may be put off by Preminger's glossy presentation of the idle rich, his direction in Bonjour Tristesse engages the mind while it stimulates the senses.
Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
Among favorite cinephile pet auteurs, no one's reputation has had a rougher ride than that of Otto Preminger's.
Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
For cinephiles, the career of Preminger is their oyster. Bonjour Tristesse is the pearl.
, Film4
he overall ambiguity of the film and its refusal to make judgements mark it as ahead of its time, while the cast are first-rate, particularly Seberg, veering between impishly mischievous and spookily sinister.
Dragan Antulov, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Hollywood soap opera at its best, nicely done and still entertaining after many decades.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "Bonjour Tristesse," Cecile(Jean Seberg) is the 17-year old daughter of Raymond(David Niven), a wealthy businessman. They are also the best of friends who are having fun on their summer holiday in the south of France. She has met a young man,… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "Bonjour Tristesse," Cecile(Jean Seberg) is the 17-year old daughter of Raymond(David Niven), a wealthy businessman. They are also the best of friends who are having fun on their summer holiday in the south of France. She has met a young man, Philippe(Geoffrey Horne), while Raymond's guest, Elsa(Mylene Demongeot), is enjoying herself, too. Into this happy household, he forgot that he had also invited Anne(Deborah Kerr), Cecile's godmother.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Made in 1958, "Bonjour Tristesse" is clearly ten years ahead of its time but we are still only in 1968. In the interim, the movie has not aged well and could have definitely used more of an edge. It chronicles a time when it was becoming hip that parents could be hip but wonders at what cost?(These are noble sentiments which are unnecessarily voiced by the characters themselves.) Raymond has been a spectacularly bad role model for Cecile but Anne shows promise as she is herself a successful fashion designer who wants Cecile to study for her exams.(I do believe in parental responsibility but not societal responsibility.) Cecile has other ideas, simply wanting to play in the moment and be supported by men in the future. [/font]