Latest news with #Cécile
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Chloë Sevigny talks indie films, new movie Bonjour Tristesse
Over a career spanning 30 years, Chloë Sevigny has defined herself as a champion of independent film. Witness a short list of notable movies: Kids (1995); Boys Don't Cry (1999); The Brown Bunny (2004); Broken Flowers (2005); and Beatriz at Dinner (2017). Her newest, the limited release Bonjour Tristesse, likewise proves that small can be beautiful. From writer-director Durga Chew-Bose, it's based on Françoise Sagan's 1954 novel of the same name. Another film adaptation was released in 1958, starring Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg. The new movie is set on the French seaside. Teenager Cécile (Lily McInerny), her father (Claes Bang) and his girlfriend (Naïlia Harzoune) are spending languid summer days captured with suitable sun-washed cinematography. But things change when Sevigny's character, longtime family friend Anne, arrives. She's quite literally a buttoned-up fashion designer, wearing a crisp white shirt, pearl earrings and a tidy updo. Feeling threatened, Cécile devises a plan to drive Anne away. But she doesn't expect what happens next. Sevigny spoke to Postmedia about Bonjour Tristesse, her love of independent film, and the idea of joining a blockbuster franchise like Marvel. Q: What do you think this story says about women's relationships? A: Cécile is growing into womanhood, but she doesn't quite understand it yet. And she's very threatened by this woman coming into her life. I was thinking a lot about my mother and how she would be lovingly critical in the way that she just wants me to have the opportunities that are available to me, to take full advantage of them. How she comes from a different generation, and what she deems as a way of getting something that one would want. So I think it's more interesting, this kind of generational relationship. Q: In this movie, Anne over-parents Cécile. But I remember you in Kids — your character there was very under-parented. How do you think the teenage years then compare to now? A: It's funny when people say that about Jenny from Kids, because I always imagined her as a girl who went to (a private school) and had a really good family. I think it's because you don't see her household, and in New York at that time there were kids from different upbringings coming together. But how things have changed? I imagine social media and all of that is rather challenging. Even for me it's hard, as far as comparing and despairing. I find the immediacy with which we have to respond to people — vis-a-vis texting or emailing or all these other ways we talk — quite stressful. So I think it's harder to just be in the moment. Q: What draws you to independent films? A: They're just the opportunities that have come my way. I'm just looking for distinct voices, original voices, something new. To me this felt like a (Éric) Rohmer film or a (Pedro) Almodóvar film. I felt this was like a foreign film written in the English language, which I don't come across often. Also, this character is something that I haven't played often. I thought Durg was a really interesting new voice in movies, and I just wanted to be there to help support her. Q: Would you consider joining a franchise like Marvel? A: Oh, I would love to do that. Q: What do you have in mind? A: I'm trying to think of what my son is into. He's into all these superhero movies and Mario Bros. and Frozen. I like all these new live-action movies. Like, the new Lilo & Stitch, I'm excited for. I think all the new Star Wars stuff is exciting. I thought The Mandalorian was great. Q: I read that you were approached for a role in Legally Blonde — is that true? A: I think I might have auditioned for the Selma Blair part. And I think they were interested in me for it, but I don't know why it didn't happen. There were a lot of those movies being made in the '90s, those more poppy teen films. And I was already on this indie trajectory. I think that now people look back and see it was a real divide. Like, why didn't she do more mainstream movies? And I don't know. I guess I didn't think that was something for me at that time. Now I look back, and I'm like, 'Oh, those movies were fun. I could have done them.' Q: What do you do when you're not working? A: My kid is turning five next week, so whenever I'm not working, I spend a lot of time with him. After school, we go to the local playground and we have a really nice community. Yesterday there was a whole gang of us over there just hanging out with our kids. It's just nice having a community of like-minded parents and being able to walk to the corner and get something to eat and somebody else watches your kid. We're so lucky to have that, so I like to develop those relationships. This interview was edited for length and clarity. Bonjour Tristesse is now in theatres and will be available to rent on June 13.
Edmonton Journal
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
Chloë Sevigny talks indie films, new movie Bonjour Tristesse
Article content The new movie is set on the French seaside. Teenager Cécile (Lily McInerny), her father (Claes Bang) and his girlfriend (Naïlia Harzoune) are spending languid summer days captured with suitable sun-washed cinematography. But things change when Sevigny's character, longtime family friend Anne, arrives. She's quite literally a buttoned-up fashion designer, wearing a crisp white shirt, pearl earrings and a tidy updo. Feeling threatened, Cécile devises a plan to drive Anne away. But she doesn't expect what happens next.
National Post
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Chloë Sevigny talks indie films, new movie Bonjour Tristesse
Article content Over a career spanning 30 years, Chloë Sevigny has defined herself as a champion of independent film. Witness a short list of notable movies: Kids (1995); Boys Don't Cry (1999); The Brown Bunny (2004); Broken Flowers (2005); and Beatriz at Dinner (2017). Article content Article content Her newest, the limited release Bonjour Tristesse, likewise proves that small can be beautiful. From writer-director Durga Chew-Bose, it's based on Françoise Sagan's 1954 novel of the same name. Another film adaptation was released in 1958, starring Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg. Article content Article content The new movie is set on the French seaside. Teenager Cécile (Lily McInerny), her father (Claes Bang) and his girlfriend (Naïlia Harzoune) are spending languid summer days captured with suitable sun-washed cinematography. Article content But things change when Sevigny's character, longtime family friend Anne, arrives. She's quite literally a buttoned-up fashion designer, wearing a crisp white shirt, pearl earrings and a tidy updo. Feeling threatened, Cécile devises a plan to drive Anne away. But she doesn't expect what happens next. Article content Sevigny spoke to Postmedia about Bonjour Tristesse, her love of independent film, and the idea of joining a blockbuster franchise like Marvel. Article content A: Cécile is growing into womanhood, but she doesn't quite understand it yet. And she's very threatened by this woman coming into her life. I was thinking a lot about my mother and how she would be lovingly critical in the way that she just wants me to have the opportunities that are available to me, to take full advantage of them. How she comes from a different generation, and what she deems as a way of getting something that one would want. So I think it's more interesting, this kind of generational relationship. Article content Q: In this movie, Anne over-parents Cécile. But I remember you in Kids — your character there was very under-parented. How do you think the teenage years then compare to now? Article content A: It's funny when people say that about Jenny from Kids, because I always imagined her as a girl who went to (a private school) and had a really good family. I think it's because you don't see her household, and in New York at that time there were kids from different upbringings coming together. Article content But how things have changed? I imagine social media and all of that is rather challenging. Even for me it's hard, as far as comparing and despairing. I find the immediacy with which we have to respond to people — vis-a-vis texting or emailing or all these other ways we talk — quite stressful. So I think it's harder to just be in the moment. Article content A: They're just the opportunities that have come my way. I'm just looking for distinct voices, original voices, something new. To me this felt like a (Éric) Rohmer film or a (Pedro) Almodóvar film. I felt this was like a foreign film written in the English language, which I don't come across often. Also, this character is something that I haven't played often. I thought Durg was a really interesting new voice in movies, and I just wanted to be there to help support her.
Geek Vibes Nation
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
‘Bonjour Tristesse' Review – Durga Chew-Bose's Reimagining Of A Thorny Novel Lacks Bite
There is a distinctly timeless quality to Durga Chew-Bose's Bonjour Tristesse, but only just. Near the beginning of the writer-turned-filmmaker's debut, the young Cécile (an excellent Lily McInerny, the Palm Trees and Power Lines standout) is seen holding seashells up to the sunlight to assess their translucency before placing them in an organized pattern on a beach towel, where they sit alongside rocks, shards of coral, and other earthy items that have washed ashore. A few frames on, her father is encouraging her to toss her iPhone into the sea; we had yet to see a cell phone by this point, leaving viewers dangling comfortably in a place without a designated time. Then, later, one character asks another which section of the newspaper they'd like to borrow. No reply comes; is this because we're operating in modern times, where sections of the paper can be accessed via smartphone apps rather than by flipping pages, or more frighteningly, where no one could give a damn about the newspaper whatsoever? The competition between (and within) these setpieces serves as the more enticing element of Chew-Bose's film – a not-so-subtle conflict that poses one's desperation to maintain modernity against their concerted longing for simpler, classic times that we now only see in films and novels – and they help manufacture a complex (albeit uncomplicated) atmosphere in which the movie and its characters can happily exist. Perhaps it should be no surprise, then, that these tableau-focused scenes are the more successful efforts from Chew-Bose than her handling and updated reimagining of the narrative from Françoise Sagan's 1954 novel of the same name, a sensation that Otto Preminger adapted into a thorny triumph of his own in 1958. It's not that Chew-Bose doesn't understand the story, but that her ideal execution of its modern retelling is tripped up by a profound uncertainty regarding what Sagan's text would look like in these times. Fans of Call Me By Your Name – both Andre Aciman's novel from 2007 and Luca Guadagnino's 2017 film adaptation – are likely to feel right at home with Bonjour Tristesse, at least from an aesthetic standpoint, and especially in the beginning stages when the film's more elaborate ideas have yet to rear their heads. Shots of grapefruit slices and swimsuit-clad teens pepper its early frames, with Cécile and Cyril, her boyfriend for the summer, played by Aliocha Schneider from Angela Schanelec's Music, enjoying short, sweet makeout sessions in many of them. Prior to one, she traces her middle name on his back, giving him the opportunity to learn it should he identify the letters that form it; when he can't, she refuses to tell him what he's missed. Cécile operates on the surface with most people, safely wading in the dangerous waters of relationships by remaining in shallow pools rather than venturing too far into unfamiliar depths. The only person who truly knows her ins and outs is Raymond (Claes Bang), her wealthy widower father, whose latest girlfriend, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), has joined them for the summer. Elsa believes she understands Cécile, but misses plenty due to her inability to see her as anything beyond the prototypical young woman. It's only after Anne (Chloë Sevigny), her late mother's closest friend, arrives at their summer home that we begin to understand why Elsa's assessment came up short, as more is revealed about Cécile's darker capabilities and urges, as well as the toxic, codependent nature of her relationship with her father. It all makes for one hell of a summer, with the idyllic, thoughtless nature of a family vacation swiftly turning into an extravagant sociological nightmare of manipulation, only sleeker. At least that's what Chew-Bose seems to be going for, a method that affords Bonjour Tristesse the quality of never being uninteresting. Regrettably, it never warrants much interrogation, either. The luscious textures and well-framed photography by the German cinematographer Maximilian Pittner are worth writing home about – who has an appreciation for two shots that place one character in the foreground and one just behind them, unable to see their expressions – but unlike in other European-set melodramas where romantic intrigue and violent impulses go together hand in hand, there's a fundamental imbalance to Chew-Bose's work here, her narrative flowing more like an unspooled yarn of scattered ideas than a literary adaptation where those ideas have already been formed for the filmmaker to then meddle with. As Cyril says while he and Cécile lounge on the rocks after a swim, 'You're so frustrating. It's like you're reckless and careful. Which usually means the recklessness doesn't come naturally.' Cécile's caution manifests most deeply in her fear of getting too close to anyone but Raymond, one of her defining characteristics in every version of Bonjour Tristesse, but in Chew-Bose's adaptation, their connection feels less obsessive than in the tale's previous iterations, and thus toothless by comparison. Sagan's novel partially reached its level of acclaim because of its author's age – she was 18 at the time of writing and detailed intense connections between family members and partners with both ferocity and ire – while Preminger's 1958 film was serene and twisted in equal measure, depending on how deeply you peered. In attempting to split the difference between the severity of Sagan's prose and the composure of Preminger's filmmaking, the spice that would make you devour what Chew-Bose is serving has been left out of the recipe. You see Raymond becoming more fascinated with Anne as her presence in their home lingers, and you see (and hear) Cécile's frustration burgeoning as the attention once reserved for her lands on an older, maternal figure. But threats must be more than meets the eye to be more than something tactile and physical. Stories like Bonjour Tristesse are not unfamiliar – one's mind may wander to Gia Coppola's Somewhere – but the more probing they are, the more willing to bite we may be. As luxurious as Chew-Bose's adaptation is from a visual standpoint, it rarely delves past the beautiful surface it fashions for itself through its undeniable scenery and the beautiful faces it captures. Much like one of Elsa's early observations of Cécile, it's an easy film to look at, but one that makes itself hard to be truly seen. Bonjour Tristesse is currently playing in select theaters courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
Los Angeles Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Another ‘Bonjour Tristesse' slinks into moody view, glamorous but more headbound
The combination of adolescence's slippery hedonism and the French Riviera's languid air spurred the explosive popularity of Françoise Sagan's 1954 novel 'Bonjour Tristesse,' written when the author was herself a teenager. Otto Preminger's 1958 adaptation, pairing the then-scandalous story with a luminous Jean Seberg, Deborah Kerr and David Niven — plus an experimental use of both Technicolor and monochrome — only burnished its appeal, inspiring the French New Wave to boot. Jean Luc-Godard once said he could have dissolved from that movie's final shot to the opening of his 'Breathless' with a simple transitional text: 'Three years later.' Six decades on, though, can a new movie from Sagan's summer tale capture that same breezy intrigue? In the case of Canadian writer-director Durga Chew-Bose's confidently composed debut feature, the answer is both yes and not quite. Some backdrops and scenarios are sturdy enough to keep their hot-and-cool appeal and this 'Bonjour Tristesse,' with its dreamy seaside luxuriance and attractive cast, makes good use of that familiarity as it mixes vintage glamour with modern details. But in Chew-Bose's passion to dig deeper into the circumstances underpinning a young girl's life-altering cruelty, there's an over-intellectualization of motive, a need to continually crack the sleek surface of Sagan's bourgeois characters with self-reflection. It ultimately undercuts a narrative whose strongest suit has always been its briskness. Under the bluest sky and against shimmering waters, Cécile (Lily McInerny) is having a golden summer, spending quality time with her charming, handsome dad, Raymond (Claes Bang), and his cool, younger dancer girlfriend Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune) at their secluded villa, while enjoying a fling with attentive, good-looking local boy Cyril (Aliocha Schneider). That dynamic shifts with the unexpected arrival of Anne (Chloë Sevigny), a brittle fashion designer and dear friend of Cécile's deceased mother. With her pulled-back hair, buttoned-up shirts and long skirts, and a tone with Cécile that's friendly yet auntie-ish, Anne brings to the frolicsome vibe a cooling maturity, a kind of watchfulness. But also, in the rekindling of a dormant closeness between Anne and Raymond, there's an imminent future that Cécile isn't ready for. Could she prevent that from happening and keep her brat summer going? The novel and Preminger's film relied on the device that its protagonist was looking back on monumental events from the perspective of that title sadness, so Chew-Bose's defiantly in-the-moment telling, kissed by Maximilian Pittner's sun-drenched imagery, feels like a bonus at first. The director also leans nicely into interstitial shots that orient us without attitude, while her choice of music, led by Lesley Barber's lilting score, is a real mood-setter of romance and melancholy. But when Chew-Bose reaches for interiority with hyperaware dialogue (democratically applied to every character), something is lost. 'She's imagining what she looks like to us,' Elsa comments to Raymond early on as they observe his daughter like a specimen. Later on, Cécile says to her dad, 'Your silence is different — I'm not in on it.' These aren't lines, they sound like an actor's notes on how to play something wordlessly. It's as if everyone's a budding essayist on psychology, which makes a situation that trades on recklessness and delusion harder to swallow. Everyone sounds too smart to be prone to error, although Sevigny comes closest, embodying someone in a precarious state of emotional susceptibility, whose obvious intelligence hides unspoken wounds. There are ways of exposing the vulnerabilities of the wise and/or precocious when navigating matters of the heart. (Éric Rohmer has many fine examples.) But Chew-Bose's approach eventually feels more clinical than revelatory. One can appreciate the effort behind this well-made 'Bonjour Tristesse' without necessarily feeling its turmoil.
