TIFF: “Bonjour Tristesse”… but with mobile phones – Blog

by Matt St Clair

Photo credit: Giacomo Bernasconi

When the film adaptation of the novel Hello, sadness by Françoise Sagan, it was both a signal for the arrival of star Jean Seberg and an opportunity for six-time Oscar-nominated legend Deborah Kerr to play with her star persona. Kerr's interpretation of the nervous Anne Larsen was a parody of her casting niche as “proper English ladies,” while also allowing her to play up her sex appeal, previously seen in Damned for all eternity And A memorable affair.

The latest film adaptation by author and director Durga Chew-Bose follows the story down to the smallest detail…

The story follows a girl named Cécile (Lily McInerny), her father Raymond (Claes Bang), and Raymond's younger lover Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), who are spending a quiet summer in France. However, it is disrupted by Anne Larsen (Chloë Sevigny), an old friend of Cécile's late mother, whose arrival puts Cécile and her father's hedonistic lifestyle to the test.

At least Chloë Sevigny's performance helps set the film apart from Preminger's 1958 film. Compared to Deborah Kerr's more abstruse approach to the character, Sevigny is unequivocal in her portrayal of Anne. With her cutting coldness as she confidently walks around her closet, Sevigny takes Anne's despotic nature even further. Equally impressive is lead actress Lily McInerny, who previously broke through with a captivating role in the gritty indie drama Palm trees and power lines. McInerny seamlessly captures the familiar frustrations of having a parent's new partner come into your life out of nowhere and tell you how to live. Many of us have had this experience and probably feel the urge to scheme so that said partner leaves our lives unscathed. Cécile, however, acts on those urges.

Claes Bang has an easygoing screen presence as Cécile's laid-back father, while Naïlia Harzoune breaks out as Elsa, who is both antagonist to the conservative Anne and ultimately a willing accomplice in Cécile's plot. While the actors are captivating, cinematographer Maximilian Pittner films scenes of mundane activities, such as people sunbathing or even cutting fruit, that seem to have been lifted from a classic European drama with a similarly exotic setting.

At the same time, because Hello, sadness has an old-fashioned look and follows the same story, it still feels like a remake of the Otto Preminger version. Whether this film is a bit closer to the novel, I can't say. But minus Chloë Sevigny's distinctive characterization of the former Deborah Kerr role, the latest version of Hello, sadness just feels like the 1958 film, only with a modern setting. C

Hello, sadness celebrated its world premiere in discovery at the Toronto International Film Festival 2024.