Postcards from the South: The Films of Bonjour Tristesse

Something like postcards, these five short films are dispatches from the south of France, sketches of the region’s way of life, its bounty of clear blue, its hospitable charms, but also, its fabricated finish. The Riviera we know from the movies is the myth of the Riviera, an evanescent setting, ideal for summer’s discontent.

Three friends, Joëlle, Caroline, and Kareen, find themselves in a waterfront cottage. They are soon joined by two men, and things start to capsize. Everything has the potential to become a moment…and before you know it, it’s already time to pack their bags.

In Mia Hansen-Løve’s deeply moving and restrained second feature, a French film producer’s shocking, sudden absence forces his family to sort through his secrets and professional debts. Through his daughters, we come to know the practical details of loss, and how loss itself is an inheritance, more so than something that can be understood.

Quietly daring in its rejection of conventional narrative, Angela Schanelec’s Marseille is a film about intermezzo, about impasses, about visiting a city without a plan, and in doing so, the city might happen to you. Her characters roam, and all we can do is accompany their strange rhythms as they sort through life and personhood.

Cat burglary on the Riviera. Pure cinematic pleasure from first to last frames. The costumes are its centerpiece, and the Mediterranean—in all its vivid VistaVision beauty—is simply background…

An adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming-of-age classic, Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse masterfully captures the complexity of female relationships and how they can exert control over each other’s destinies.