Bonjour Tristesse
A spectacular colour restoration of Preminger’s celebrated adaptation of the Sagan novel, starring Jean Seberg and depicting the decadent rich philandering on the French Riviera.
Even if a screening is sold out, tickets are often available 30 minutes before the start of the film at the box office at each venue.
- Director-Producer Otto Preminger
- Screenwriter Arthur Laurents
- With Jean Seberg, David Niven, Deborah Kerr
- USA 1958
- 94 mins
- UK distribution Park Circus
Impeccably restored in dazzling colour, monochrome and ’Scope by Sony Columbia’s Grover Crisp, Preminger’s stylish, clear-eyed and detached look at the decadent lifestyle of the haute bourgeoisie on the Côte d’azur in the 1950s is an intelligent deepening of precocious teenager Françoise Sagan’s bestselling novel of the period. Narrating in flashback from a glistening, black-and-white Paris to a brilliant, blue-hued Riviera, Preminger’s tragically short-lived protégée, Jean Seberg, had her best role as a spoilt adolescent scheming ruthlessly to extricate her roué father (Niven) from the marital clutches of his mature and frighteningly prissy mistress (Kerr), with devastating results. Niven’s callous charm is unsettlingly perfect; Mylène Demongeot is irrepressibly cocquettish as his bed-hopping girlfriend; and Juliette Gréco, in a cabaret cameo, sings the title song heartbreakingly. Preminger’s camera is cool and unerring, and the elegance, insouciance and aimless ennui of the super-rich have never been better portrayed.
Clyde Jeavons
Otto Preminger filmography
1931 Die grosse Liebe
1936 Under Your Spell
1937 Danger, Love at Work
1943 Margin for Error [aka Clare Boothe Luce's Margin for Error]
1944 In the Meantime, Darling; Laura
1945 A Royal Scandal [aka Czarina]; Fallen Angel
1946 Centennial Summer
1947 Forever Amber; Daisy Kenyon
1948 That Lady in Ermine
1949 The Fan [aka Lady Windermere's Fan]; Whirlpool
1950 Where the Sidewalk Ends; The Thirteenth Letter
1952 Angel Face
1953 The Moon Is Blue
1954 River of no Return; Carmen Jones
1955 The Man with the Golden Arm; The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell [aka One Man Mutiny)
1957 Saint Joan; Bonjour Tristesse
1959 Porgy and Bess; Anatomy of a Murder
1960 Exodus
1962 Advise and Consent
1963 The Cardinal
1964 In Harm's Way
1965 Bunny Lake Is Missing
1966 Hurry Sundown
1968 Skidoo
1970 Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
1971 Such Good Friends
1975 Rosebud
1980 The Human Factor
Read the Time Out review.
Become a Member
Get early booking access and enjoy year-round benefits with BFI Membership.
Join todayFestival brochure
Download our digital BFI London Film Festival 2023 brochure, compatible with most screen readers.
Download brochure