How “Bonjour Tristesse” Reinvents Jean Seberg’s Iconic Function

PARIS — Overlook about Charli XCX: This 12 months’s summer time type icon would possibly simply be Jean Seberg.

The U.S. actress with the pixie haircut is again within the highlight thanks to 2 movies: Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Imprecise,” which premiered on the Cannes Movie Competition, and “Bonjour Tristesse,” a brand new adaptation of French writer Françoise Sagan’s seminal coming-of-age novel.

Whereas Zoey Deutch performs Seberg in Linklater’s black-and-white ode to the delivery of French New Wave cinema, rising actress Lily McInerny reprises one in every of Seberg’s most well-known roles in the remake of “Bonjour Tristesse,” which marks the function movie debut of Canadian author and director Durga Chew-Bose. 

Seberg, who died in 1979 on the age of 40, performed the lead character Cécile in Otto Preminger’s 1958 adaptation of the ebook — a trendy affair that featured robes by Givenchy, jewels by Cartier and equipment from Hermès. 

McInerny stated she didn’t see the unique film till after taking pictures was over. “That was an intentional selection, in order to not even subconsciously attempt to mimic her unimaginable origination of Cécile,” she advised WWD in an interview. 

“Our movies differ in some ways. Durga is really a author in her personal world. She’s working with the unique textual content of the novel. She herself may be very deliberately not attempting to recreate something that Preminger touched, so we each are huge followers of the movie and respect it very a lot, however they’re very distinct of their types,” she stated. 

Watching Seberg navigate the plot, which chronicles the harmful conduct of a free-spirited 17-year-old and her playboy father, proved intense for the 26-year-old actress.

“I felt very emotional, and I felt very hooked up, and I felt very near Jean Seberg in that second, and it was nearly like watching a distant relative or a good friend I knew, or a bizarre type of dream of myself,” McInerny mused. ”To have that reference to somebody so glowing and untouchable as Jean Seberg, it was so cool.”

For costume designer Miyako Bellizzi, the venture was an excuse to bask in her ardour for interval movies and classic trend, which influenced the general look of the movie.

“I acquire ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s garments simply generally. I’ve an archive of all of it,” stated Bellizzi, who was working concurrently on “Marty Supreme,” which has garnered advance buzz for the ‘50s-era costumes she designed for stars Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow.

A Fashionista’s Delight

“From the very starting, Durga and I at all times spoke about how we miss the fantastic thing about previous movies and the way, in numerous extra basic movies, the best way that costume design was approached was totally different to how it’s now,” Bellizzi stated, citing the work of legendary costume designers like Adrian and Edith Head.

“I mourn movies which have good style in clothes. It’s one in every of my largest pet peeves in modern movies,” she added. “I actually needed to showcase that, you understand, deliver it again.”

The truth that one of many primary characters in “Bonjour Tristesse” is a designer was the icing on the cake. Chloë Sevigny performs Anne, whose arrival on the household’s vacation villa on the French Riviera units in movement a lethal cycle of jealousy and retribution.

Recognized for her work on films together with “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems,” Bellizzi relished the change of register. “Most of my movies are very male-heavy, and that is the primary time I’ve had three ladies and it’s so fashion-forward,” she stated of working with McInerny, Sevigny and Nailia Harzoune, who performs Elsa, the daddy’s girlfriend. 

Infused with a powerful design sensibility, the movie is a fashionista’s delight because it revels in obscure references, reasonably than the splashy resortwear that’s usually the default wardrobe choice for movies and sequence set in opposition to a Mediterranean backdrop. 

“We may do the ‘White Lotus’ of the south of France,” stated Bellizzi, including that the concept was discarded in favor of one thing extra timeless. “I needed it to only be tremendous basic.” 

She used Renaissance Renaissance, the Lebanese label based by Cynthia Merhej that has twice reached the semifinals of the LVMH Prize, because the stand-in for Anne’s trend label. Sevigny wears a number of appears by the model, along with classic Yohji Yamamoto and Jean Paul Gaultier, and equipment by Sophie Buhai.

Merhej additionally designed a key search for McInerny: a ‘50s-inspired pouf gown that symbolizes Cécile’s transition from tomboy to ingenue. However numerous her garments within the movie are authentically classic: Bellizzi and McInerny acquired an early begin on wardrobe prep by scouring secondhand shops in New York Metropolis. 

“She lives down the road from me, so I’d be, like, ‘Hey, let’s go store,’” Bellizzi recounted. “She’s so tiny that every one the best, coolest classic items match her like a glove.” 

That features a yellow swimsuit that was a nod to the one worn by Seberg within the authentic movie. McInerny spends a lot of her time on display screen in bathing fits and bikinis, however stated she didn’t really feel self-conscious.

“That was by no means a hesitation for me,” she stated. “Stepping away from the movie, I used to be like, ‘Was I too lined up?’ As a result of we’re on the seashores of France, it’s fairly frequent to be topless.”

A Seberg Tribute

A part of her confidence got here from the truth that she’s recognized Chew-Bose since she was a toddler. A part of it was realizing that Bellizzi had her again. 

“Miyako actually prioritizes an actor’s consolation and confidence within the garments that she’s dressing you in. It goes a very great distance when it comes to our efficiency,” she stated, including that it’s essential to give up private hangups. 

“Understanding your character totally, you’ll additionally perceive what makes them really feel assured and what makes them really feel enticing, and that may be totally different from what you your self would [wear] in your day by day life,” she added. 

On the purple carpet, McInerny has developed a detailed relationship with Celine since making her huge display screen debut in 2022 within the indie drama “Palm Bushes and Energy Strains.” She collaborated with the French model on her search for the “Bonjour Tristesse” premiere on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition. 

“I got here to them with a picture from the unique Preminger movie of Jean Seberg on this basic black get together gown. It was one in every of my favourite costumes from the unique movie,” she recalled. 

“To have something customized for me can be a dream come true, not to mention one thing so intimate and intently hooked up to this venture so pricey to me, they usually got here again to me in a few weeks with this beautiful sketch of the gown that I in the end wore to our debut,” McInerny stated.

She famous that Zouzou, former inventive director Hedi Slimane’s last perfume for Celine, was billed as an homage to Sagan and Seberg. 

“It felt very natural and significant to know that everybody behind the scenes and past was as passionate concerning the historical past we had been moving into,” the actress stated. “That’s our biggest hope, that it transports you to an period of fashion and movie that typically will get ignored nowadays.”