Bonjour Tristesse / Saint Joan

BONJOUR TRISTESSE, 1958, Sony Repertory, 94 min. In Otto Preminger’s haunting film, Jean Seberg plays a meddlesome teen whose wealthy reprobate father (David Niven) settles down, marrying repressed Deborah Kerr, with catastrophic results. When Seberg’s character finally makes the transition from teenager to adult, it is with a poignantly tragic resonance.

SAINT JOAN, 1957, Otto Preminger Films, 110 min. After a casting hunt rivaling that for Scarlett O’Hara, Otto Preminger chose Jean Seberg, an unknown, 18-year-old Iowan to play Shaw’s heroine. Seberg is quite touching in the role, and Preminger surrounded the novice with British theatrical royalty (John Gielgud, Anton Walbrook, Richard Todd, Kenneth Haigh), though his casting of Richard Widmark as a childlike Dauphin was as controversial as his choice of leading lady.