Bonjour Tristesse

At the height of summer holiday, 18-year-old Cécile (Lily McInerny), the apple of everyone’s eye, is languishing at the French seaside with her devilishly handsome father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his bohemian lover Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), whose age is not far from Cécile’s. Other than tending to a budding romance with a local boy (Aliocha Schneider), Cécile has all the time in the world to float and daydream, giving her a front row seat to Apéro-laden adult conversations free of morality. Building her sandcastle just as the tide rolls in, her postcard-perfect world is threatened when a visit from her late mother’s friend Anne (Chloë Sevigny) — a celebrated American-born, Paris-based fashion designer who fits the scene like a glove — casts a shadow over Cécile’s quotidian belle vie, despite her longing to connect. As days turn into weeks and the sun’s power fades, Cécile uncovers as many uncouth truisms about the fabulous people around her — who are just human​ after all — as she does about herself. Stylish, meticulous, and devastating to the core, Bonjour Tristesse is a time-marked yet timeless tale of growing up. (Toronto International Film Festival)