Bonjour Tristesse
Bonjour Tristesse (French: "Hello Sadness") is a novel by Françoise Sagan. Published in 1954, when the author was only 18, it was an overnight sensation. The title is derived from a poem by Paul Éluard, "À peine défigurée", which begins with the lines "Adieu tristesse/Bonjour tristesse..." An English-language film adaptation was released in 1958, directed by Otto Preminger.
Plot summary
Seventeen-year-old Cécile spends her summer in a villa on the French Riviera with her father and his mistress. Her father, Raymond, is a seductive, worldly, amoral man who has had many affairs. His latest woman friend is Elsa Mackenbourg: she and Cécile get on well. When Elsa comes to the villa to spend her summer with Raymond, it is clear that she is the latest of many women whom Cécile has seen enter the life of her father and exit fairly quickly: young, superficial, and fashionable. Raymond excuses his philandering with an Oscar Wilde quote about sin: "Sin is the only note of vivid colour that persists in the modern world." Cécile says, "I believed that I could base my life on it", and accepts their lifestyle as typical. Cécile, at 17, is still somewhat naïve and tries to disguise this by attempting to attract men of the same age as her father. Her love life is unsuccessful until she meets a man in his 20s, Cyril, with whom she has a romantic but ultimately dissatisfying relationship.
Bonjour Tristesse (film)
Bonjour Tristesse (French "Hello, Sadness") is a 1958 British-American Technicolor film in CinemaScope, directed and produced by Otto Preminger from a screenplay by Arthur Laurents based on the novel of the same title by Françoise Sagan. The film stars Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg, Mylène Demongeot and Geoffrey Horne, and features Juliette Gréco, Walter Chiari, Martita Hunt and Roland Culver. It was released by Columbia Pictures. This film had colour and black and white sequences, a technique unusual for the 1950s but widely used in silent movies and early talking films.
Plot
On the French Riviera, Cécile (Jean Seberg) is a decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father, Raymond (David Niven). Anne (Deborah Kerr), a mature and cultured friend of Raymond's late wife, arrives at Raymond's villa for a visit. Cécile is afraid that Anne will disrupt the undisciplined way of life that she has shared with her father.
Despite his promises of fidelity to Anne, Raymond cannot give up his playboy life. Helped by Elsa (Mylène Demongeot), Raymond's young and flighty mistress, Cécile does her best to break up the relationship with Anne. The combination of the daughter's disdain and the father's rakishness drives Anne to a tragic end.
Podcasts:
