Bonjour Tristesse
The film met with a lukewarm critical reception at the time. The BFI's "Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote "The best performance is David Niven's; he gives his part a pathetic touch that the writing never attains. Jean Seberg, who speaks rather than acts her lines, turns in the least effective performance. "Bonjour Tristesse" is an elegant, ice cold, charade of emotions, completely artificial and eventually torpid." Others enjoyed it rather more and it had some unexpected fans. François Truffaut described Seberg as "The best actress in Europe". Jean-Luc Godard said "The character played by Jean Seberg (in "Breathless") was a continuation of her role in "Bonjour Tristesse", I could have taken the last shot of Preminger's film and started after dissolving to a title: "Three years later". An article in "The Guardian", in 2012 described it as "an example of Hollywood's golden age, and both its star and its famously tyrannical director are ripe for rediscovery." Stanley Kauffmann described "Bonjour Tristesse" as tedious.