Bonjour Tristesse

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Bonjour Tristesse

Released Jan 15, 1958

1h 34m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

88%

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24 Reviews

68%

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1,000+ Ratings

Anne (Deborah Kerr) travels to the French Riviera to visit Raymond (David Niven), the wealthy husband of her recently deceased friend. His pampered daughter, Cecile (Jean Seberg), afraid that the prim and proper Anne's visit may alter their hedonistic lifestyle, attempts to drive a wedge between the woman and her father, with the help of his young French mistress, Elsa (Mylène Demongeot). Little do they know that Anne's attitude hides a fragility and pain that may have tragic consequences.

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Richard Brody

New Yorker

A brilliant dialectical filmmaker, Preminger extracts the last ounce of pathos from the anguish of the mute witness.

May 16, 2016

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Calum Marsh

Little White Lies

Jean Seberg is as captivating as ever in Otto Preminger's newly restored 1958 drama.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 29, 2013

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Underneath the endless round of parties and nightclubs, there is a desperate, secret sadness, and Seberg's stare at the camera is haunting.

Rated: 5/5

Aug 29, 2013

Full Review

Zita Short

InSession Film

Watch Bonjour Tristesse and marvel at her strength and confidence. She was a rare creature and we should have had more actresses like Kerr...

Feb 10, 2023

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Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

It meanders a bit and at times feels a little soapy, but its intelligence, craftiness, and style can’t be denied.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 19, 2022

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James Mottram

Total Film

Contrasting the picture-perfect backdrop, Saul Bass' title sequence and Juliette Grco's rendition of the title song add to the melancholy.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 28, 2013

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Jerry E

Bad acting doesn’t rescue an abominable script. Niven and Kerr are adequate. But Seberg’s artificial bubbliness is embarrassingly irritating. She has no idea how to convey a believable character, nor even say a line with a sense of truth. Truffaut must have been drunk. But Godard obviously saw something, for he got much better out of Seberg in “Breathless.”

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

11/21/24

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Audience Member

Opening credits sucked me right in. Beautiful graphics and music. Liked use of color and black and white, and flash backs. Thought Jean Seberg's acting was outstanding, and all of acting was very good. Enjoyed the lovely scenes of the French Riviera, and felt as if I were right there with the actors, smelling the pines and the salty sea. The end was a little overplayed and melodramatic, but that was probably how the novel ended. The scenes where the two girls are setting up David Niven's inevitable fall from grace are the only ones that are overlong and needed editing. It is an interesting and different movie.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Audience Member

Very strange film. David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

06/20/21

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david f

This is worth watching because Godard said that Jean Seberg was playing the same role that she did in his film, ‘Breathless' only three years later. It's about a carefree father and daughter who live on the French Riviera and whose somewhat decadent lifestyle has serious consequences for a woman they get involved with.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

A truly terrible film directed by a masterful director, Bonjour Tristesse is a film replete with awkward acting and unintentional bathos. Its only saving grace is that Jean Seberg's Cecile is unmistakably the influence for Godard's Patricia in Breathless which would go on to succeed where this film fails.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

Can't believe the popular reviews of this, this is...and I don't say this lightly...absolute drivel. If a film about a spoiled brat of a teenager who is upset her Daddy likes another woman sounds like your kind of thing well then fill your boots. Not for me I'm afraid. Yes, Jean Seberg is beautiful...that doesn't make an entire film.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

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Otto Preminger

Director

Deborah Kerr

Anne Larson

David Niven

Raymond

Jean Seberg

Cecile

Mylène Demongeot

Elsa

Geoffrey Horne

Philippe

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Synopsis

Anne (Deborah Kerr) travels to the French Riviera to visit Raymond (David Niven), the wealthy husband of her recently deceased friend. His pampered daughter, Cecile (Jean Seberg), afraid that the prim and proper Anne's visit may alter their hedonistic lifestyle, attempts to drive a wedge between the woman and her father, with the help of his young French mistress, Elsa (Mylène Demongeot). Little do they know that Anne's attitude hides a fragility and pain that may have tragic consequences.

Director: Otto Preminger
Producer: Otto Preminger
Screenwriter: Arthur Laurents
Production Co: Wheel Productions
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 15, 1958, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 15, 2010
Runtime: 1h 34m

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