In one of the most evocative scenes in Durga Chew-Bose’s new film adaptation of Bonjour Tristesse, 18-year-old Cécile, played by Lily McInerny, is sitting on the kitchen floor, having a midnight snack. Her legs are bent to one side, and she leans back on her hands. She’s wearing a champagne-colored silk party dress with a sweetheart neckline, thin spaghetti straps, and a bubble hem. She stares at the fluorescent light coming through the open door of a refrigerator. A half-full (empty?) glass is beside her. The tulle and taffeta of her skirt fan around her. The dress is a recent gift from her late mother’s fashion-designer friend Anne, played by Chloë Sevigny, who has shown up at her family’s summer home for an unexpected visit. Cécile appears as a child teetering on the edge of growing up.
Françoise Sagan, who wrote Bonjour Tristesse, was just 18 herself when the novel was published in 1954. It was an overnight sensation, in part due to its sexually charged plot: Cécile is spending the summer on the French Riviera with her charming and philandering father, Raymond (Claes Bang), and his free-spirited young mistress, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune). Anne, the surprise guest, is more removed and formal but exhibits a motherly tenderness toward Cécile. Raymond takes up with Anne, and the relationship rattles Cécile so much that she is moved to sabotage it, with tragic consequences. The book was first adapted for the screen in 1958 by Otto Preminger, who cast a young Jean Seberg as Cécile.
Out this month, Chew-Bose’s new version is set in the present day and backdropped by the French seaside town of Cassis. It’s a slow burn that’s emotionally driven, with a particular focus on the complexities of the female relationships, underscored by intriguing and intentional set and costume design.
“We wanted a timeless mood that also felt … off,” Chew-Bose says. “Familiar, but only to a degree. We wanted the costume design to have a real point of view that served the characters and told their stories through details, like how a skirt could speak to a certain woman’s sense of self, the way she is an architect of her world, how she might conceal her tenderness in order to protect her heart, or how she might collect objects to keep close to her loved ones and her memories.” She adds, “We wanted a mood that felt romantic, and costume design was, in some ways, the skeleton key to that romance.”
The enchanting dress Cécile wears in that scene in front of the fridge was created by Lebanese designer Cynthia Merhej, whose label, Renaissance Renaissance, is steeped in the idea of strong, eccentric glamour. Merhej designed several one-off pieces for the film, including a red gown Anne wears during a pivotal scene. She also lent pieces from her current collection, working alongside costume designer Miyako Bellizzi, whose previous work includes collaborating with the Safdie brothers on Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019). Aside from Merhej’s creations, the wardrobe for the film was primarily vintage, sourced in Paris. “Durga and I both agreed about keeping things pretty classic,” Bellizzi says.
The frequent appearance of Cécile’s iPhone tethers the story to the current day, but apart from that, there is little to pinpoint the exact time frame of the film. And that was precisely the point. “We wanted it to be this surreal story where it could be in the past, it could be in the present, but you’re not really sure,” says Bellizzi. To that end, Bellizzi pulled vintage Giorgio Armani and Issey Miyake for some of the characters, dressing them in clothes that felt contemporary but also of another time, when beachside living wasn’t about ease but about taste. She also worked with Sophie Buhai on the jewelry, outfitting the characters in sculptural, minimalist rings, earrings, and necklaces throughout.
Chew-Bose thought a lot about the style that would be on screen in her world of Bonjour Tristesse, and there’s one reference in particular that always moved her: “I always love dress moments in movies. Like Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina.” Chew-Bose explains, “Miyako and Cynthia made that dream a reality. They understood that we were building a world that felt real but also a little strange.”
In Chew-Bose’s Tristesse, you feel every glare, every joyful or nervous movement, every toast that is buttered and coupe of wine that is poured. There’s a prevailing sense of unease. It’s the women who capture the viewers’ attention, not just because of their beauty but because of their interiority. It’s easy to identify with the youthful nonchalance of Cécile as she’s sauntering around the living room with a book in hand, dressed in her swimsuit and an oversize polo shirt. Because of her father’s freewheeling lifestyle, Cécile lives with no real rules or boundaries, ignoring her schoolwork. She starts a casual sexual relationship with her neighbor, a young man named Cyril (Aliocha Schneider).
There is both tenderness and fearsomeness in the way that Anne adjusts the sleeve of her dress or slips a chunky silver ring on her finger. The film finds sweet moments in discussions around clothes, whether in the scene where Anne gives Cécile that heavenly party dress she designed or when the two are sitting on the couch, discussing some of Anne’s most recent sketches.
“Anne, I related to her,” Merhej says of Sevigny’s character. “She is someone who can come off as a bit cold, but there’s actually a lot of depth to her. She’s very caring.” She adds, “And then her clothes: She likes to always be a bit more put together, a perfectionist, but again there’s a lot of depth to her.”
Merhej’s designs are particularly intriguing to view in the context of this film about women, made by women. (In addition to Chew-Bose’s screenplay, Lesley Barber did the score, and Alice Searby did the casting.) She is a third-generation designer; her great-grandmother Laurice Srouji established a couture business in Jaffa, Palestine, in the 1920s, and her mother, Laura Merhej, was also a designer, self-taught, who opened her own atelier in Beirut in 1984. Today, Merhej and her mother still work together on Renaissance Renaissance. It’s an approach to fashion that’s all about duality, with classic tailoring and utilitarian materials that come with something playful like a bubble hem or an oversize covered-button embellishment on a top.
Chew-Bose explains that she loves “handsome women,” and when it comes to Merhej’s designs, “there’s a real tactility that feels both inviting and like armor. Also, her designs have a sense of humor. They are smiling at you.” In Bonjour Tristesse, Merhej helped draw out the “strange” romance Chew-Bose was after, alongside Bellizzi’s careful consideration of the way clothes speak to the audience from behind the screen. “Miyako’s costume design was extremely attentive to how the scene would be shot,” Chew-Bose says. “Are they walking? Are they sitting? Are they sitting comfortably? Is this scene tense? Does she like sitting in shorts? Where does she feel most beautiful?” She continues, “Miyako would ask all of those questions and then come up with answers through her designs.”
Bellizzi used a recurring palette of browns and blues for all of the female characters, and Chew-Bose points out that Bellizzi would come to set before they’d begin shooting to hold up different garments in various spaces to make sure they’d capture well depending on the time of day and the light. “Everything was in concert,” Chew-Bose says. That was true for not just the costumes and the storytelling but also the three women who visualized Sagan’s story for a new and modern era. “I thought the entire process was really beautiful,” Bellizzi says. “The director, the costume designers, the producers were all women. I’ve personally never worked on a film where everyone, even the main characters, are primarily women. It’s a rare thing in the film world.”
That synergy came through in the performances and the directing, but also in the clothing. In fashion at the moment, many designers are focusing on what women want to wear day to day—clothes that feel true to their full and multifaceted lives. Few designers, though, have been truly able to achieve this; the runway can present only a glimmer of an idea that doesn’t fully take shape until it’s out in the world. Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse, with all of its intense relationships, off-beat interactions, and reflections of womanhood, grounds that fantasy in a reality. “We talked a lot about the characters’ inner lives,” she notes. “How they are, too, when they’re alone in a room. We didn’t want a fashion film, so to speak; we wanted a film where the clothes help [the viewer] understand who these characters are.”
