À la française

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.

"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.

She was a very gifted actress, discovered by Otto Preminger and made all kinds of roles, from Saint Joan to a gangster bride of Jean-Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's major debut "A bout de souffle" and with Peter Sellers in one of his best comedies, her second marriage was with Roman Gary, who after her death by suicide at 40 blamed the FBI for it for having hounded her by spreading false rumours, but as an actress she was always outstanding. This is a totally different kind of film. Her character and performance here reminds you of Audrey Hepburn in her very subtle and sensitive, and vulnerable style, and the story is a romantic melodrama about love relationships in Paris, and you must regret that Stanley Baker, always excellent in his crude way, didn't get her. It is a wonderful suave and rather melancholy film like a novelletta, and the music is exquisite.

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.