Françoise Sagan was 17 when she scribbled out her first novel in the smoky jazz cellars of Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The story was simple, maybe even familiar by today’s standards. Cécile, the willful teenage narrator, is vacationing on the Côte d’Azur with her rakish widowed father, Raymond. Two peas in a pod, they pursue an uncomplicated life of pleasure. Cécile sunbathes, swims, smokes, and sleeps with a handsome law student. When Raymond’s stuffy new girlfriend threatens to spoil her fun, Cécile plots to split them up, leading to tragic results.
Published in 1954, Bonjour Tristesse was decadent, amoral, and scandalous—“a vulgar, sad little book,” according to one reviewer. Sagan’s story of existential ennui bathed in Bain de Soleil flew off the shelves, quickly making its author a literary It Girl and paparazzi target. A film version, directed by Otto Preminger and starring Jean Seberg, appeared in 1958. And now a remake, directed by the writer Durga Chew-Bose and starring Chloë Sevigny, Claes Bang, Lily McInerny, and Nailia Harzoune will debut next month at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Sagan’s son, Denis Westhoff, is among the executive producers.)
