When “Bonjour Tristesse” was first released in 1954, it was an overnight sensation, to the point that it was turned into a film only four years later in 1958. Now, just over 65 years after that, it’s hitting screens once again, thanks to Durga Chew-Bose. However, the director didn’t want to bring it to today’s audience simply for the sake of modernizing a classic.
Originally written by Françoise Sagan, the story centers on Cécile (played in the latest film adaptation by Lily McInerny), a young woman who heads to the south of France to spend the summer with her widowed father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his latest love interest, Elsa (Nailia Harzoune).
Stopping by TheWrap’s 2024 TIFF Studio sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Boss Design with her cast, Chew-Bose explained to TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman that even though the book and first film adaptation came out so long ago — Sagan wrote it when she was just 18 years old — it “has remained modern.”
“So when my producers approached me to adapt it, I felt like we weren’t going to just adapt it for the sake of making it modern, and it was already contemporary material that I wanted to continue,” Chew-Bose said.
She noted that her 2024 adaptation, which also stars Chloë Sevigny, feels more like “a continuation of both” the book and the original film, saying, “They share a pedigree and a heritage, and it was something I really wanted to keep in mind.”
It was keeping that vision in mind, combined with her own individual vision, that attracted the stars of her film.
“This is a completely unique perspective and reinterpretation of the original that could only have been done through [her] lens,” McInerny told TheWrap. “And so I really wanted to make sure to give myself freedom to also be present and pay that respect.”
In the end, Chew-Bose’s take on this updated adaptation also drew the respect and admiration of Sagan’s own son Denis Westhoff, who was an executive producer on the movie.
“He read drafts of the script, was really involved in just — he visited set, and he was telling me, actually, that he felt this version was a film his mother would have really loved,” Chew-Bose said. “And he felt it was actually quite close to maybe what she had originally intended. So in some way as well, yes, it is my lens. I think that I was really trying to also honor or listen to her voice and find some of the quieter moments in the book, capture summer for what it really feels like.”
You can watch TheWrap’s full interview with Chew-Bose and the cast of “Bonjour Tristesse” in the video above.
