MOVIE: SAGAN

When 19 year-old Francoise Sagan shot to fame in 1954 with her debut novel, Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness), she became the quintessential enfant terrible or as one publication dubbed her at the time, “Charming little monster.” Suddenly swept up in the excesses of Parisian artistic life, Sagan drank, gambled, crashed cars and took numerous lovers. This recklessness created a legacy that remained for her entire life. Despite continual success as a novelist and later, as a playwright and screenwriter, she developed addictions to various illicit and prescription drugs that led to what she penned at the end of her life as true sadness, “Living without love, with no one to hold you back.” While this biopic never delves too far below the surface to explore and solve Sagan’s psychological complexities and is in no way a cautionary tale of the trappings of fame and addiction, it strikes the right balance between restraint and sentimental reflection to provide a fascinating and moving depiction of how a remarkable talent slowly succumbed to darkness and decay (MP).