Chloë Sevigny Interrupts a Summer Respite in First Trailer for Bonjour Tristesse, Arriving in May

Following its TIFF premiere last fall, Durga Chew-Bose’s Françoise Sagan adaptation Bonjour Tristesse recently traveled to New York, opening the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look. Now, Greenwich Entertainment has set a May 2 theatrical debut for the drama starring Chloë Sevigny, Claes Bang, Lily McInerny, Nailia Harzoune, and Aliocha Schneider, and released the first trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “At the height of summer, 18-year-old Cécile (Lily McInerny) is languishing by the French seaside with her handsome father, Raymond (Claes Bang), and his girlfriend, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), when the arrival of her late mother’s friend, Anne (Chloë Sevigny), changes everything. Amid the sun-drenched splendour of their surroundings, Cécile’s world is threatened and, desperate to regain control, she sets in motion a plan to drive Anne away with tragic consequences. An adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming-of-age novel by the same title, Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse masterfully captures the complexity of relationships between women and how they wield influence over one another’s fates.”

Ethan Vestby said in his TIFF review, “There was slight trepidation going into Bonjour Tristesse. Justifying itself as another ‘adaptation’ of Françoise Sagan’s text rather than remake of Otto Preminger’s masterpiece of mise-en-scène, there’s still some hesitation about the chutzpah that must go into thinking you can top that great craftsman at the height of his power. As directed by writer-turned-filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose with a great deal of formal assurance (you definitely won’t mistake this for something akin to, say, Maximum Overdrive in that career-switch category), this 2024 iteration is a highly respectable effort that’ll speak to countless people the original didn’t. One major difference being that Preminger made the film as a showcase for the muse he was having an affair with, Jean Seberg, casting some leering-male element onto the whole project. Chew-Bose’s project isn’t so much feminist as feminine––that a working-out of neurosis that doesn’t provide completely easy answers. “

See the trailer below.