Stars Chloë Sevigny, Lily McInerny on ‘amazing Canadian women' behind ‘Bonjour Tristesse'
TORONTO – There's a lot left unsaid between the women in 'Bonjour Tristesse,' an exploration of complicated relationships in which the camera at times lingers on routine gestures in lieu of dialogue – exchanged glances, a character's hands, the systematic steps in removing one's earrings.
Its U.S. stars heaped praise on Montreal-based writer/director Durga Chew-Bose for displaying a detailed, confident vision for her first film, based on Françoise Sagan's 1954 novel of the same name and set during a teen's seaside vacation with her playboy father and his girlfriend.
Lily McInerny's perceptive Cécile is rankled when her late mother's friend, Anne, played by Chloë Sevigny, suddenly turns up at their sun-dappled French villa, leading to a stew of complicated emotions that simmer below the surface.
McInerny called it a 'challenging, but also a really pure approach to performance.'
'I really enjoyed the exercise of feeling just as clearly and as pointedly and as powerfully as I could, and then seeing how that manifested itself visually through my body and expression,' McInerny said during a round of interviews when the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.
Seated next to her, Sevigny notes that so many things in life go unsaid, especially between close family members who may develop a silent shorthand to communicate.
'One glance with a mother, brother or father or daughter can tell so much. And I think that's part of the beauty of watching the movie – is thinking about your own relationships and just sitting with these people and watching them move through rooms,' Sevigny says.
'Durga was very into that, you know – how does one have different rituals, like removing the earrings? Because everybody has these patterns in which they move in, and she really wanted to explore that.'
The Canada-Germany co-production was shot in France with a global cast including Denmark's Claes Bang of 'The Square,' France's Naïlia Harzoune and French-Canadian actor/musician Aliocha Schneider.
Sevigny credited Toronto-based producers Lindsay Tapscott and Katie Bird Nolan – 'two amazing Canadian women' – with helping to ensure that Chew-Bose could realize her vision.
'Just having two women in a position of power on a set really dictates a mood, a sensitivity. And they really wanted to get Durga everything she desired for the movie. And they really fought for her, and for her ideas, and the way she wanted to tell the story,' she says.
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'You could feel that. It was palpable throughout the set, every day. Just even how they boarded the script and the schedule and in allowing Durga time with the actors. It was, overall, just an amazing experience.'
Though McInerny is also early in her career, she says she was impressed by Chew-Bose's sensitivity, calmness and clarity.
'It was as if it were her 20th (film). You could not tell in any way that this was actually her first time stepping onto a set, and I think that is just a testament to her talent, and magic.'
'Bonjour Tristesse' hits theatres Friday. It becomes available for rent June 13.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2025.
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