Cécile is seventeen, spoiled, and spectacularly self-centred. Spending the summer on the French Riviera with her charming, womanising father, she lives a life of parties, flings, and sun-drenched idleness—until an old family friend arrives and threatens to impose order. Cécile doesn’t take it well.
With its unsettlingly hollow energy, baby Jean Seberg's ingenue haircut and a moodboard's-worth of summer style inspiration, Bonjour Tristesse is all elegance on the surface and something much nastier underneath. The original sad girl summer story.
Summertime Sadness
Long, hot summers have always been fertile ground for anxiety, danger and despair on screen. From holiday horrors to angsty coming-of-age tales, summertime sadness is a microgenre all on its own. Even the way we watch – sitting in a dark room – goes against the spirit of warm, sunny days. Escape the packed pubs, hay fever, and heatwave irritability, and come wallow with Zodiac Film Club in a mini-season of sad girl summer classics that lull you with sunshine... then give you a shock.
