Bonjour tristesse (1958)

Cecile, decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father Raymond. When Anne, Raymond's old love interest, comes to Raymond's villa, Cecile is afraid for her way of life.

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Arthur Laurents (screenplay), Françoise Sagan (based on the novel by)

Stars:

Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Deborah Kerr	...	Anne Larson
David Niven	...	Raymond
Jean Seberg	...	Cecile
Mylène Demongeot	...	Elsa
Geoffrey Horne	...	Philippe
Juliette Gréco	...	Herself
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

Storyline

Cecile, decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father Raymond. When Anne, Raymond's old love interest, comes to Raymond's villa, Cecile is afraid for her way of life.

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Plot Keywords:

father | french riviera | riviera | playboy | guilt | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

April 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bom Dia, Tristeza

Filming Locations:

Côte d'Azur, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wheel Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

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

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Goofs

We hear the Band at c.6'50" and we see a clarinet-player performing, but the music has no clarinet part whatsoever included at that point in the soundtrack. Later, when the clarinet does eventually join the soundtrack, the fingering of the player bears absolutely no relation to the music actually being heard.

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Quotes

Cecile: Albertine! I mean Léontine! Slight maid problem. Some weird sisters rotate working for us.
Anne Larson: Weird? How?
Cecile: Every week one or the other is suddenly stricken with some odd malady. Maybe it's us.
Maid: Yes, Mademoiselle?
Cecile: Oh! Léontine...
Maid: Léontine has a bad liver. I am her sister, Claudine.

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Connections

Featured in Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991)

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Soundtracks

"Bonjour Tristesse"
Music and Lyrics by Georges Auric
Sung by Juliette Gréco

User Reviews

One of the most beautiful films ever made; see it on the big screen only

I'll never forget seeing a pristine print of this magnificently shot (entirely on location in the French Riviera) Preminger classic on the huge screen of the Egyptian theater in Hollywood (I refuse to watch the cut-up video version currently available), and let me tell you, there is no more poetic or romantic film in existence. Forget the silly, soap-opera pretext of a Francoise Sagan plot, just sit back and let the 'real' story, the visual poetry drift over you and take you away. Now, I'm not saying this because I'm in love with both Jean Seberg and Deborah Kerr (how can you not be, the way they look on the screen here), but because this is the quintessential Otto Preminger film, where he takes the trashiest of romance novels and proceeds to make a case study demonstration of how irrelevant 'standard' plot devices can be in the cinema by making a visual masterpiece out of it.