Jean Seberg Smartphones Page

Preminger persisted, despite critics, andwon a marvelous performance from her as thespoilt adolescent in Bonjour Tristesse (58). Itwas apparent by now that unlike most discoveries who had previously only done localstock, she was self-possessed and mature.Beauty, the conventional asset of the newcomer, had been restricted by the hairstyles ofher first two films. Perhaps it was in reactionagainst the bad reviews, and as an emotionalgesture toward American cinema, that—afterThe Mouse That Roared (59, Jack Arnold) andLet No Man Write My Epitaph (59, PhilipLeacock)—Jean-Luc Godard got her to playPatricia, the American girl in Paris in Breathless(59).

At first, she rather rebelled against his conception of a treacherous escapee from some film noir, but in the end was credibly degeulgasse, the more so for not knowing what the word meant. She then became the first notable American actress to work in France. Learning the language quickly, she was given a wig for Infidelity (61, Philippe de Broca) and matched Micheline Presle for sexiness. Here again, the Iowa girl proved surprisindy worldly. She married Frenchman Francois Moreuil and he directed her rather limply in Playtime ((62). She divorced him and married novelist Romain Gary, and then played in Inthe French Style (63, Robert Parrish) and the "Grand Escroc" episode from Les Plus Belles Escroqueries du Monde (63, Godard), a Patricia Leacock blithely subjecting all around her to cinema verite.

In 1963, despite the fact that Yvette Mimieux had recommended Lilith to him, Robert Rossen chose Seberg for that part. As with Joan, she brought an earthiness to a mythological character. The film is ambitious beyond its directors talent, but her playing throughout has a proper rapture and it is Seberg's most evident proof of poetic imagination.

After that she worked in France and America, but never in really testing parts: Un Milliard dans un Billiard (65, Nicholas Gessner); Moment to Moment (65, Mervyn Le Roy); AFine Madness (66, Irvin Kershner); La Ligne de Demarcation (66, Claude Chabrol); Estouffade à la Caraïbe (66, Jacques Besnard); LesOiseaux Vont Mourir au Perou (68, Gary)—wildly pretentious and arty; Pendulum (68,George Schaefer); Paint Your Wagon (69, Joshua Logan); Airport (70, George Seaton); Macho Callahan (70, Bernard Kowalsld); Kill (71, Gary); L'Attentat (72, Yves Boisset); LaCorrupcion de Chris Miller (72, Juan AntonioBardem); and Cat and Mouse (74, Daniel Petrie).

She married Dennis Berry, son of John Berry, and appeared in his Le Grand Delire (75). She directed a short film, Ballad of theKid (74), and acted in Die Wildente (76, Hans Geissendorfer).

On September 8, 1979, two policemenlooked into a white Renault that had beenparked ten days on a quiet street in Paris.They found the decomposing body of Jean Seberg, with a bottle of barbiturates. She hadbeen involved with black activists. The FBIhad hounded and harassed her. A child of hers had died. The hideous story is well told in David Richards's Played Out, but Seberg'stragedy has been attempted on stage, and itlingers.

Rumours flew that Seberg's's suicide was masterminded by the FBI but it was never proven. Buried in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris, France, her funeral was attended by such notables as Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

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