BONJOUR TRISTESSE Discovery

US Premiere

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and writer Durga Chew-Bose and actor Lily McInerny.

Fresh off her 2023 Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance, Lily McInerny (PALM TREES AND POWER LINES) shines as young Cécile in this electric debut from writer/director Durga Chew-Bose. Adapted from the scandalous, 1950s-set novel (which Otto Preminger adapted with the iconic pairing of Jean Seberg and Deborah Kerr), Chew-Bose takes a modern approach to this nostalgic coming-of-age story. Cécile has an atypically close relationship with her widowed playboy father, Raymond (Claes Bang), who is courting his latest fling at their seaside villa in the south of France. She is enjoying her own blissful summer romance until Anne (Chloë Sevigny), an old friend of Raymond’s and his late wife, resurfaces to crash the group’s peaceful holiday abroad. Sevigny nails the refined, pompous attitude of the bourgeoisie, and Chew-Bose confidently captures her burgeoning protagonist as a sharply aware, sympathetic character caught in the crossfires of first love, jealousy and unexpected tragedy. –Julia Kipnis