IMDb > Bonjour tristesse (1958)
Bonjour tristesse
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Bonjour tristesse (1958) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.7/10   1,151 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?

Down 2% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Françoise Sagan (novel)
Arthur Laurents (screenplay)

Contact:

View company contact information for Bonjour tristesse on IMDbPro.

Release Date:

April 1958 (USA) more

Genre:

Drama more

Plot:

Cecile, decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father Raymond. When Anne, Raymond's old love interest... more | add synopsis

NewsDesk:

Topics/Questions/Exercises Of The Week—13 November 2009
 (From The Auteurs. 13 November 2009, 8:45 AM, PST)

User Comments:

Another study in a teenage girl's destructive dislike for her widowed father's lover… more (34 total)


Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Deborah Kerr ... Anne Larson

David Niven ... Raymond

Jean Seberg ... Cecile - Raymond's daughter
Mylène Demongeot ... Elsa
Geoffrey Horne ... Philippe
Juliette Gréco ... Herself as a night club singer.
Walter Chiari ... Pablo
Martita Hunt ... Philippe's Mother
Roland Culver ... Mr. Lombard
Jean Kent ... Mrs. Helen Lombard
David Oxley ... Jacques
Elga Andersen ... Denise
Jeremy Burnham ... Hubert
Eveline Eyfel ... Maid
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Additional Details

Runtime:

USA:94 min | Argentina:94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1 more

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Filming Locations:

Côte d'Azur, France more


Fun Stuff

Trivia:

Dominique Wilms was Otto Preminger's first choice for the part of Elsa, but she refused. more

Quotes:

Cecile: It's getting out of control. I just wish I were a lot older or a lot younger. more

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Les bonnes femmes (1960) more

Soundtrack:

Bonjour Tristesse more


FAQ

Who is that singing the title song?
How does the movie end?
What does the title mean?
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22 out of 28 people found the following comment useful.
Another study in a teenage girl's destructive dislike for her widowed father's lover…, 21 May 2007
7/10

The films of Otto Preminger share for the most part a detached objectivity in their attitudes to character and moral issues…

In "Bonjour Tristesse," his gamine protégé Cecile (Jean Seberg) is a very peculiar girl, maybe spoiled and willful and arrogant and lazy…

Anne (Deborah Kerr) had made her look at herself for the first time in her life…And that turned her against her… And now, her father is not having fun anymore, which was probably another reason she decided to get rid of her… How carefully and how seriously she went about that decision, is the tale of Françoise Sagan, published in 1954, by the time she was nineteen…

Raymond (David Niven) is a bundle of surprises… For him, it's such a wonderful fun to have Cecile for a daughter… And loving Anne doesn't mean that he loves his daughter any less… The wealthy playboy becomes serious from the moment that Anne arrived… He could never think of her as just someone to have fun with… He does have fun with Elsa (Mylène Demongeot) but that's a long way from being all he wants… Now, he has never wanted any woman the way he wants Anne…

Anne spent her honeymoon by the sea 12 years ago… She had quite a debate with herself before coming down to the French Riviera… For knowing that Elsa was there, she got stupidly angry and decided to leave…Then the prospect of packing and looking for a hotel was too much after that long drive so she decided to stay…

Being too sophisticated (maybe for discovering occupied territory), Anne was as suspicious of summer as she was of Raymond in spite of the fact that she knew him 15 years ago, and was quite sure that with him, nobody is safe…

For Cecile, Anne is prim and prissy and prude… For a woman who hates vulgarities—even when they're funny—she could never be seriously interested in a man like her father… So part of her was angry, part was happy, all of her was excited… Her father had brought a girl to the seashore, made her go out in the sun and then when she was a mess of peeling, dropped her like a hot lobster… It was unfair… Yet even while she was angry at him, she was proud that he had gotten the unattainable Anne… Anne looks now softer… She moves easier… In the morning, she seems as though she had the most wonderful secret in the world…

Suddenly she becomes aware of a great responsibility towards Cecile, as it would be good if she stops seeing Philippe (Geoffrey Horne) and studies for her philosophy examination…

Cecile becomes furious at her interference… Anne wants her to study and not to see Philippe… So what shall it be? For her, there'll be a man to take care of her…And she doesn't need a diploma for that…

Now she hates Anne… For her, she has changed her father…She'll change her and will change everything…

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