À la française

"You're going to say that I ought to leave Paris...that I ought to come home like a good little girl and be a nice, demure, hypocritical piece of merchandise on the marriage market...pretending I don't know which end of a man is up!" Jean Seberg stars as a 19-year-old girl from Chicago, studying art in Paris and beginning to show real promise, who abandons her talent for an unfulfilled modeling career and a series of romantic misfires; four years later, she's contemplating her future, fed up with the empty decadence, disappointment and heartache of her life. Irwin Shaw based his screenplay on two of his short stories, and he just about nails the insecure feelings of a directionless young woman desperate to hang on to her youth and beauty while seeking loftier paths in the bargain. The film is slowly paced but never dreary, nor insubstantial; it sneaks up on you. Seberg is tentative in her role, but also thoughtful and complicated. It's a Beautiful People movie, likely aimed at upscale female audiences of the time, yet it has a lot more resonance (and cool style) than most other "woman's pictures" of the era. *** from ****

Adapted by Irwin Shaw based on two of his novels, Robert Parrish's vehicle for American actress famous for French films Jean Seberg in IN THE FRENCH STYLE also feels like two movies in one involving two polar opposite romances...

The first with a young and opinionated French local Phillipe Forquet whose uptight, idealistic persona contrasts his innocent boyish looks, and it's unbelievable that Seberg's Christina James... an American on perma-vacation in Paris to become an artist... would have lasted in this relationship for a narrated three months, wherein the best aspects are the actual Paris exterior locations...

Meanwhile the following more grown-up half is mostly shot indoors, from apartment rooms to restaurants to a loud jazzy artsy shindig where the best sequence occurs before Christina's second romance with roving reporter Stanley Baker who, like hedonistic playboy Jack Hedley, treats her with respect but no love, which makes the casting of such a perfectly gorgeous ingenue seem all wrong...

But she hits the right notes when her progressive father visits... their one major sequence as Addison Powell's Mr. James tells Christina exactly what she needs not wants to hear is more interesting than all the sweet-nothings by those random suitors, that not only don't deserve her company but hardly fit the movie...

At least not the one starring Jean Seberg, who often seems like she's being visited by various actor-friends on the set of a much deeper, richer and more intriguing art film than IN THE FRENCH STYLE, which attempts both avant garde detachment and mainstream melodrama while partially failing, twice...

But backed by gorgeous B&W French-travelogue-style cinematography, this particular STYLE is like a moving postcard that's very nice to look at... particularly Seberg, at her most beautiful here: And that's saying something.

Usually not my cup of tea, films strictly from female perspective about female lives, but I enjoyed this intimate and modest portrait of a American woman living in France, trying to make a living and to have fun at the same time. While I was happy it was not at all sentimental, I did find the story shallow and conventional, a bit like chick-lit in modern literature (a woman enjoying success and going out with non-existing charismatic and well behaved men).

But the actors were convincing. Seberg of course is perfect for this part, like when she says smiling: 'Trying to impress him with how all-round marvelous I am.' She acts with a powerful glance. Also, she is the queen of beautiful smiles.

I guess Stanley Baker was solid as always, but his part was underdeveloped. Philippe Forquet steals the show, as a kind of creepy boyfriend. But his drama doesn't get exploited as nothing really gets really nasty in this film. Forquet was, because of his looks, a logical counterpart of Seberg. Fun facts: he became specialized in playing French aristocrats in Hollywood films, and was once Sharon Tate's boyfriend.

The relaxed tone of the film is probably its best quality. It is observing rather than trying to share a controversial opinion, like for example a film of Costa-Gavras would. It reminded me a bit of Ma nuit chez Maude, but more old-fashioned. There are also some neat shots of Paris, and a lot of shots from beautiful Jean Seberg. With a lot, I mean A LOT. The superfluous close-ups are hardy countable. But how could I argue with director Robert Parrish? She is downright gorgeous. When you are this pretty, and can act as well, well, why not? I rate it 7/10.

Wow, despite following Seberg a bit I had never heard of this movie and found it wonderful. I'm a sucker for films about Americans in Europe between the end of the war and before the hippies. Seberg is so desirable (gosh, she looks a lot like Tippi Hedren here) -- people seemed so much more adult at a much younger age. (I recall that line from You've Got Mail where Parker Posey says, Do you believe the Rosenbergs in the picture were around our age?). Always when viewing these films about young women in the late Fifties/early Sixties, I find it poignant to think about them, and how their lives may be changed by the upheavals of the late Sixties. And, of course, that's true of Seberg. Anyway, the movie is a treat -- watch it.

Robert Parrish did far more work as editor than as director - in fact, IN THE FRENCH STYLE became one of his rare forays into that film-making department. Despite that, he did a commendable job of orchestrating a large number of characters, all of whom emerge as necessary for the piecing together of this tale of human love driven by innocence, learning past innocence, and ultimately convenience.

To that end Parrish is greatly helped by superior performances from his entire cast, down to the minor parts. Jean Seberg as Christina James shines as as the cherry on this delicious cake, not because of the much-repeated and to me needless fact that she is an American residing in Paris but because she is a woman, the universal femme par excellence.

She begins by developing an adolescent relationship with Guy (Philippe Fouquet), who tries to act older than his age, and even warns her that Frenchmen slap back, ultimately correctly predicting that she will in time have many men in her life and ultimately settle with one for economic and social convenience.

As she moves away from the underage Fouquet after the film's first 45 minutes, and gets acquainted with a bunch of handsome and variously interesting men, she has a memorable re-encounter with her father, whom she has not met in four years, and comes to see her in Paris. Addinson Powell, an actor I know nothing about, delivers a short, simple and naturalistic performance as the inevitably interested Dad, who rapidly surmises the pedantic and flash in the pan 1960s scene, and warns his daughter that she may be wasting her time extending her stay in Paris.

In a memorable sequence, Dad sees Christina join a group of models in assorted clothing on a stage for a group photo, and is in fact congratulated on his remarkably scultpural facial features, all of which convince him of un-reality.

Besides tapping so subtly and yet incisively into the 1960s scene, IN THE FRENCH STYLE posts several touches of genius, including never showing the Eiffel Tower although the whole shoot occurs in Paris; and, especially, Stanley Baker making his entrance 50 minutes into the film.

Baker may not be the most handsome of male leads, but as a strapping fellow with penetrating eyes he spots Seberg and they immediately attract to each other. The problem, if they would call it that in the beginning, is that each has other partner exploits on the go. Eventually, Seberg tires of bidding farewell at airports knowing that he will be sharing his bed with other women abroad.

Finally, she picks a man she obviously does not love as much as Baker but one who is a US-based medical doctor and, at the very least, banks a reliable income and enjoys solid social standing. And, of course, she will be returning to her roots outside of heathenish and hedonistic Paris where her physical beauty and social mobility may soon start losing sheen.

The instrumental score by Joseph Kosma deserves the highest plaudits, as does immaculate cinematography by Michel Kelber. Irwin Shaw's book and screenplay are absolute top drawer, too.

Deeply observed must-see film, to me more modern than most of this computer-brained trash we see today that passes for love stories. Or any other stories, for that matter. 10/10.