‘Bonjour Tristesse:’ Who do I want to be when I grow up?

Lily McInerny in Bonjour Tristesse Photo provided by Greenwich Entertainment At the beginning of Bonjour Tristesse based on the novel previously adapted into a film in by Otto Preminger Elsa Nailia Harzoune and her boyfriend Raymond Claes Bang take in Raymond s -year-old daughter C cile Lily McInerny as she overlooks the French seaside She s standing in that particular way teenagers do trying to look nonchalant and in the pursuit of that endeavor hyper concerned with how she comes across She s imagining what she looks like to us Elsa whispers to Raymond This adaptation of Bonjour Tristesse written and directed by filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose is about just this While Fran oise Sagan s novel and Preminger s movie are about a young woman coming to terms with her own selfishness Chew-Bose s film is more about that time in a young person s life when they must decide who they want to be how they want the world to see them Chew-Bose achieves this ever-so-slight twist in the meaning of Bonjour Tristesse by placing more importance on the relationships that C cile has with the women around her rather than the one she shares with her father Evoking the bright colors and summer ennui of ric Rohmer Bonjour Tristesse marks a strong feature debut for Chew-Bose showing off the director s visually expressive style and filled with great performances While the narcissism of the source material still lingers in this new adaptation after all what teenager isn t just a little bit of a narcissist somehow Chew-Bose has wrung from it a sensitive and sharp coming of age story C cile plans to spend her summer ignoring responsibility opting to laze the day away with her laissez-faire father and Elsa or spend time with her new beaux Cyril Aliocha Schneider rather than devote any attention to her studies C cile Raymond and Elsa have created a safe sparkling fantastical bubble for themselves during this summer on the French Riviera uninterested in anything reality has to offer But when Anne Chlo Sevigny an old friend of Raymond and C cile s late mother shows up to join the party the bubble inevitably pops Bonjour Tristesse feels more in the vein of Rohmer s brand of summer languidity if you need a more latest example think Luca Guadagnino s Call Me By Your Name or A Bigger Splash which is based on another French film that slots nicely into this space La Piscine than it does Preminger s more stringent albeit very beautiful take on the source material The hallmarks of summer are evident at every turn a red bathing suit strewn carelessly over a wooden chair a paperback haphazardly left splayed open face down C cile s days are unhurried almost sluggish and yet every image Chew-Bose chooses is remarkably expressive and detailed She spends time on the lingering looks between characters or on the face of the listener rather than the speaker gauging their reaction to the information being shared On Anne s first morning at the house she and Elsa each eat an apple for breakfast Elsa chomps down on hers while Anne meticulously slices away at the apple s flesh with a knife neat and precise in her movements When C cile joins them she begins to bite into her apple before catching a glimpse of how Anne eats hers C cile slows her chewing down thoughtfully In moments like these which are plentiful throughout Bonjour Tristesse you could watch the movie with the sound turned off and still know exactly what each character was feeling or thinking a beautiful marriage of visuals and performance C cile loves how impossibly chic Anne is but this part of her the sharp exacting part C cile bucks against C cile s relationship with Raymond is about as Gilmore Girls as it gets He doesn t treat her like a child sharing cigarettes with her letting her have the run of the house do as she pleases and she doesn t treat him like a parent calling him Raymond taking a vested interest in his sex life Early in the film Elsa walks in on Raymond and C cile playing solitaire together famously a one person challenge Elsa sits off to the side watching them confused but willing to let it slide Part of the reason Raymond and C cile like Elsa is she doesn t intrude on the strange toxic co-dependency that they ve built for themselves Anne does What s worse for C cile as Raymond becomes more and more enamored with Anne he lets that intrusion slide And with Anne in charge Anne who wants C cile to focus on school and more pivotal things C cile s days of lazing away on the beach or making out with her hot French boyfriend are numbered In the Preminger film C cile s played by Jean Seberg reaction to Anne and Raymond s relationship and therefore Anne s sudden power over her life feels fueled by a childish desire to continue living a diverting carefree lifestyle In this film C cile s anger stems more from her desire to be an adult and how she understands what exactly that means Her father has more or less refused to parent her under the guise of treating her like an adult but that lack of parenting has stunted her rise leaving her unaware of the responsibility adulthood brings Again Chew-Bose demonstrates this disconnect to us visually multiple times including a gorgeous shot of C cile sitting on the floor in a designer dress Anne brought her barefoot with her toes curled up under her her shoulders set in slumped teenage posture a girl playing dress up C cile is obsessed with the idea of knowing herself and what s needling about Anne is how C cile can both aspire to be her and hate how young she makes her feel at the same time She bristles against Anne s implications that she s not grown up enough to handle herself but at the same time she can be self-aware of her own limitations Elsa represents a different type of womanhood a looser more flippant version that while more familiar to C cile is still a little alien When Elsa cuts her hair short C cile muses Do I know myself well enough to cut my hair She might as well be asking Which one of these women do I want to be In another break from Preminger s adaptation C cile defines herself through her relationships to the women around her rather than the men In the film C cile is thinking about herself yes but also constantly considering how each action will affect her father In Chew-Bose s adaptation C cile might consider her father s feelings but despite the fact that Claes Bang has never ever been hotter in a movie Raymond himself is far more tangential to the story However much her father treats her like an adult it s only when C cile begins to consider the women around her that she really starts to grow The post Bonjour Tristesse Who do I want to be when I grow up appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta