DVD/150: BONJOUR TRISTESSE (Otto Preminger, 1958)

After SAINT JOAN's failure, Otto Preminger chose the best-selling BONJOUR TRISTESSE, written by Francoise Sagan when she was 18, as a second vehicle for his discovery Jean Seberg, still only 20 years-old.

As with SAINT JOAN, Preminger bullied Seberg during filming and the film's American failure resulted in him ending their three-picture contract.

The film is told in flashback: Cecile is 18, indifferent to her glamourous Parisian life with Raymond, her rich playboy father with his parade of new girlfriends but inside she is tormented by events from the previous summer when they vacationed on the Riviera.

Joined by Raymond's latest mistress, the scatter-brained Elsa, they are suddenly visited by Anne, best friend of Cecile's late mother. Fashion designer Anne has a refined poise which attracts Raymond.

When they announce their engagement, Cecile slowly realises Anne will disrupt her relationship with Raymond and decides to act...

Shelf or charity shop?  Sunbathing on the shelf!  While not perfect - the clashing of English, American, French and Italian accents strains the ears - BONJOUR TRISTESSE rewards repeat viewings.  Jean Seberg has an excellent screen relationship with David Niven but she really impresses when Cecile is faced with Anne's kill-joy personality and becomes a wilful, vengeful teenager.  Deborah Kerr is effective as Anne and also enjoys a good partnership with Niven who gives a nicely nuanced performance. Preminger made a good choice to have the 'present-day' Paris scenes shot in cool black & white and the Riviera scenes in lush colour.  An odd supporting cast include two nice turns from British actresses Martita Hunt and Jean Kent as two Riviera denizens and a haunting appearance by Juliette Greco.  Although Jean's performance was dismissed in English-language reviews, both Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard both praised her; Godard saying that her performance as Cecile easily lead into her role as Patricia in his iconic A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (BREATHLESS).

 

DVD/150: LES QUATRE CENTS COUPS (The 400 Blows) (Francios Truffaut, 1959)

A landmark of French New Wave cinema, LE QUATRE CENTS COUPS marked the directorial debut of Francois Truffaut, winning him the Best Director Award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, remarkable as he had been banned from the 1958 festival for writing a swingeing critique on current French cinema.

Based on his own teenage years, Truffaut cast 15 year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud and they would make another six films together, four of them following Antoine becoming a man.

Parisian Antoine lives with his parents in a small flat.  His father is amiable but his mother is emotionally cold.  Antoine sees her kissing a man one day and she sees him, but neither mentions it.

Bored by school and draconian teachers, Antoine plays truant but his subsequent excuse is discovered and he starts a descent to being arrested, his parents disowning him and being sent to a youth detention centre.

Shelf or charity shop?  I suspect this will be one ultimately for the charity shop but you cannot deny Truffaut's wonderful achievement or his excellent handling of his actors and in particular Léaud who ice-cold stare looks out at you from the famous freeze-frame ending - escaping from the detention centre, he runs to a nearby beach and turning away from the expanse of the sea, he looks into the camera... what does life hold for a boy whose only real crime is restlessness?

Dvd/150: A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (Breathless, Jean Luc Godard, 1960)

Marking cinematographer Raoul Coutard's death and the late Jean Seberg's 78th anniversary, I watched again the film that influenced so many filmmakers, A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, and it's still exciting and provoking.

Dedicated to Monogram Pictures studios, the plot is pure film noir: small-time criminal Michel steals a car in Marseille and, while driving to Paris, shoots a policeman.  Once there, he unsuccessfully tries to borrow money while hiding out with sometime-girlfriend, American student Patricia.

Patricia has found out she is pregnant, maybe it's Michel's.  Over the course of a day, they chatter, make love, argue, but always with a strange disconnect because of language or attitude.

Fellow nouvelle vague directors Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut were involved in the script but Godard's shoot-and-run film captures the dizzying excitement of 1960s young European cinema personified by the ageless performances of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.

Shelf or charity shop? Jean will be selling the New York Herald Tribune on my shelf for some time to come..

Dvd/150: LA SIRENE DU MISSISSIPPI / MISSISSIPPI MERMAID (Francois Truffaut, 1969)

Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, LA SIRENE DU MISSISSIPPI is an oddity, exploring love and desire through the medium of a Hitchcockian thriller that now looks like a clunky tv-movie.

Louis (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who owns a tobacco factory on an Asian island, proposes to a girl he has been writing to via a lonely hearts column.  When Julie (Catherine Deneuve) arrives, she explains that she looks nothing like the photograph he has because she was nervous of her looks - Deneuve???? - so she sent a friend's photo instead.

They marry but Julie vanishes soon after with nearly all his money.  Louis pursues her to France where Julie admits her real name is Marion and she was forced into the subterfuge by her criminal lover who has left her penniless.

When Louis kills the detective tracking Marion, they go on the run - but can Marion really be trusted?

Shelf or charity shop?  La boutique de charitie...