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As someone who has long known this story with a keen interest in Seberg, read the excellent bio Played Out and has seen Mark Rapaport's bio/essay film, From the Journals of Jean Seberg, I was not all disappointed and Stewart nails her performance.

Some seem bothered this is too much from the FBI angle which brings in false artifice but this misses the point. Seberg, despite its title is not a biopic but a pinhole into a real life true crime story and mystery with federal employees as the culprit and an internationally famous and iconic American actress as the victim. That is the focus.

We get to share and identify somewhat with the FBI agent with the inherent implications of guilt thereby and while I don't, some may feel the real weight of having lived through the period. Are they FBI's actions not to some degree the result of national paranoia and prejudices being carried out by federal employees? There are real questions raised and explored here.

As to another problem people are having in terms of the ending not depicting a Seberg suicide. Many who knew her and her family always maintained that she did not kill herself but was assassinated. There is a mystery at stake therefore and to depict either would have its own problems.

The other reviews her suffice but given the notion of this being a hard to find film I thought I'd point out that this film as well as several other in the collection seem to be exclusive to the Pioneer First Women Filmmakers set available from Kino. It can also be purchased but is streaming as a season on Netflix for now.

Also, the outdoor settings and quality of the print are quite beautiful and the scenario and lead role, unlike many of the other early films directed by women, lends itself to thoughts on a burgeoning sense of female emancipation and empowerment circa a century ago.

Enrico Caruso was one of the early global icons for his opera singing and here appropriately plays duel roles as a world famous Italian opera singer and his poor cousin living in NYC who works as a sculptor. Within the two roles he is quite distinct in his appearance and, indeed, the film begins with a sequence of various appearances the opera singer took on for his opera roles.

The plot hinges on the sculptor's love for Rosa who both works as his model and for her father in the restaurant the sculptor frequents. Although he has not seen his famous cousin since they were boys, he has sculpted a bust of him and seemingly likes to brag about his famous relative.

He takes Rosa to see his cousin play the old Metropolitan Opera house which is shot on location and offers a nice chance to see the place in 1918! But afterwards they attend a restaurant where the opera singer happens to be eating incognito. A brief meeting between the cousins who don't recognize each other on the opera star's way out is shortly followed by someone remarking upon who the man really was and Rosa believes the sculptor lied to her about having a famous cousin and breaks off their relationship.

I won't get any further into the plot to let the film speak for itself but there is interest in the line of people, fans and hopeful singers who want to meet the opera star and the greeting he gets while driving to his cousin in Little Italy which does seem like it might have been shot on location during a festival.