SEBERG
***
Director: Benedict Andrews
Screenwriters: Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse
Principal cast:
Kristen Stewart
Jack O’Connell
Anthony Mackie
Yvan Attal
Vince Vaughn
Colm Meaney
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Rating: ***
Runtime: 102 mins.
Australian release date: 30 January 2020.
Jean Seberg was an American actress who spent half her life in France and is most remembered for her starring role in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, although she appeared in 30 or so films during the 1960s and ‘70s, including the Hollywood blockbusters Paint Your Wagon and Airport. Now, a critical part of her life is brought to the screen in a luminous performance by Kristen Stewart in Seberg. The film’s driving-force, Australian theatre director Andrew Benedict, told The Sydney Morning Herald that, from the moment he read the screenplay, “I could not imagine making the film without her.” He was struck by the similarities between the two actresses: both came to stardom while young, were subsequently denigrated in their home country and turned to making films in France as a way of redeeming their acting reputations. It’s not surprising, then, that Stewart succeeds in portraying the essence of Jean Seberg, at least during the three years of her life covered in this film, a period when Jean was a political activist who supported the Black Panther movement.
When we first meet her, she is living in Paris with her second husband Romain Gary (Yvan Attal), the famous French novelist, but about to head for the States to audition for a role in Paint Your Wagon. This is the Paris of 1968, when the streets were literally burning with civil upheaval, general strikes, university occupations and protests against the government of Charles de Gaulle, and the air is crackling with revolution. On the flight to L.A., Jean meets Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie), a leader of the Panthers, and she subsequently begins an affair with him. This liaison brings her into the crosshairs of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and its COINTELPRO program, dedicated to surveilling and discrediting any political organisation the FBI regards as subversive. Because Jean is a popular and influential movie star who openly supports the Black Power movement, Agents Solomon (Jack O’Connell) and Kowalski (Vince Vaughn) are assigned to follow her every step and bug her every conversation. Soon, however, she becomes aware of their surveillance and the knowledge undermines her, getting under her skin and pushing her towards a nervous breakdown.
Andrews, whose only previous film is Una, starring Rooney Mara, does great work with actors but doesn’t pay as much attention to the bigger picture. As a result, Seberg doesn’t always draw its audience into the world it is depicting and the story doesn’t affect us as it should, except when Stewart is on screen. Fortunately, though, she’s on screen a lot (gee whiz fact for Aussies - Kristen Stewart’s mother is Australian, hailing from Sydney. Who knew?) Jack O’Connell is very good too, convincingly conveying the ambivalence his character begins to feel as he observes the mental disintegration of the actress under his surveillance. The FBI does not come out of this looking good; indeed, after the real Seberg’s death they issued a half-hearted apology for their actions.
Seberg covers a fascinating period of history that younger filmgoers may not be familiar with but it must be remembered that it’s a drama, not a documentary, and as such, the scriptwriters have naturally taken some liberty with the facts. Nevertheless, the gist of what is shown on screen is, regrettably, true, and Andrews and Stewart have done a fine job of bringing this tragic story to fresh sets of eyes.
Screenwriters: Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse
Principal cast:
Kristen Stewart
Jack O’Connell
Anthony Mackie
Yvan Attal
Vince Vaughn
Colm Meaney
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Rating: ***
Runtime: 102 mins.
Australian release date: 30 January 2020.
Jean Seberg was an American actress who spent half her life in France and is most remembered for her starring role in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, although she appeared in 30 or so films during the 1960s and ‘70s, including the Hollywood blockbusters Paint Your Wagon and Airport. Now, a critical part of her life is brought to the screen in a luminous performance by Kristen Stewart in Seberg. The film’s driving-force, Australian theatre director Andrew Benedict, told The Sydney Morning Herald that, from the moment he read the screenplay, “I could not imagine making the film without her.” He was struck by the similarities between the two actresses: both came to stardom while young, were subsequently denigrated in their home country and turned to making films in France as a way of redeeming their acting reputations. It’s not surprising, then, that Stewart succeeds in portraying the essence of Jean Seberg, at least during the three years of her life covered in this film, a period when Jean was a political activist who supported the Black Panther movement.
When we first meet her, she is living in Paris with her second husband Romain Gary (Yvan Attal), the famous French novelist, but about to head for the States to audition for a role in Paint Your Wagon. This is the Paris of 1968, when the streets were literally burning with civil upheaval, general strikes, university occupations and protests against the government of Charles de Gaulle, and the air is crackling with revolution. On the flight to L.A., Jean meets Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie), a leader of the Panthers, and she subsequently begins an affair with him. This liaison brings her into the crosshairs of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and its COINTELPRO program, dedicated to surveilling and discrediting any political organisation the FBI regards as subversive. Because Jean is a popular and influential movie star who openly supports the Black Power movement, Agents Solomon (Jack O’Connell) and Kowalski (Vince Vaughn) are assigned to follow her every step and bug her every conversation. Soon, however, she becomes aware of their surveillance and the knowledge undermines her, getting under her skin and pushing her towards a nervous breakdown.
Andrews, whose only previous film is Una, starring Rooney Mara, does great work with actors but doesn’t pay as much attention to the bigger picture. As a result, Seberg doesn’t always draw its audience into the world it is depicting and the story doesn’t affect us as it should, except when Stewart is on screen. Fortunately, though, she’s on screen a lot (gee whiz fact for Aussies - Kristen Stewart’s mother is Australian, hailing from Sydney. Who knew?) Jack O’Connell is very good too, convincingly conveying the ambivalence his character begins to feel as he observes the mental disintegration of the actress under his surveillance. The FBI does not come out of this looking good; indeed, after the real Seberg’s death they issued a half-hearted apology for their actions.
Seberg covers a fascinating period of history that younger filmgoers may not be familiar with but it must be remembered that it’s a drama, not a documentary, and as such, the scriptwriters have naturally taken some liberty with the facts. Nevertheless, the gist of what is shown on screen is, regrettably, true, and Andrews and Stewart have done a fine job of bringing this tragic story to fresh sets of eyes.