5 Curious Facts: Durga Chew-Bose on Bonjour Tristesse
by Ellie Hay
Writer-director Durga Chew-Bose brings a contemporary woman’s perspective to Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness). The voyeuristic coming-of-age feature is set in a modernist stone-walled villa in the south of France and stars Lily McInerny, Claes Bang, Naïlia Harzoune, Aliocha Schneider, and Chloë Sevigny. Durga’s melodic sequences have an intimate lived-in feel, settling the viewer into a de-accelerated pace that only summer allows.
Montreal-born Durga Chew-Bose was originally approached to write the screenplay for the adaptation after the film’s producers Lindsay Tapscott and Katie Bird Nolan read Durga’s book Too Much and Not the Mood, and cold-emailed her to ask if she would write the film. As Durga began work, Lindsay and Katie (of Babe Nation Films) saw an opportunity in her strikingly visual creative process; she was a writer who valued the frame. Intuitively, they suggested Durga should direct — it would be her first-ever feature film.
Here, Durga speaks to Patter about 5 curious facts from the filming of Bonjour Tristesse.
1. The villa was designed by modernist architect Fernand Pouillon
“The waterfront villa where much of our film takes place was designed by the architect Fernand Pouillon. It’s located near the Calanque de Port Miou as well as a short 4-minute drive to the beach in Cassis. In classic Pouillon style, the villa lives in harmony with its surroundings, built around 300 year old trees which provide wild, natural shade on multiple terraces.
It was the first villa we scouted and the only one we wanted. It just… spoke to us. Every detail, from ceramic tiles (which inspired the film’s opening titles), to long stretches of windows that encouraged a spooky sense of voyeurism, to even something as silly as the villa’s junk drawer which I remember discovering during our first scout. I pulled open the drawer and enjoyed the real-life feeling of clutter and a life being lived. I was so charmed.
The villa feels all at once sprawling but contained. Shallow steps transform moments of urgency into something more elegant. Pouillon’s sensitivity for place encourages the outside to enter the villa’s insides, and vice versa. We were all under its spell.”
2. Durga suffered extreme sea sickness during the boat scenes!
“The day we shot our boat scenes was… memorable. Within the first hour or so of being out at sea, I grew extremely sick. I lost all colour. I couldn’t speak, let alone direct. I had to be taken back to land.
I had to trust that my team and cast would be okay without me. In some ways, it was a really beautiful moment because they did have my trust and their confidence is so plainly visible in the film’s opening minutes. I remember being given a can of Diet Coke and thinking that first sip was one of the greatest feelings ever. Instantly curative.”
3. Actor Naïlia Harzoune uses a personal keepsake as an ambiguous prop for Elsa
“In one scene, Naïlia Harzoune, who plays Elsa, is getting ready for a night out. She quickly throws things into an evening purse: cash, lipstick, her sunglasses. She pauses and grabs a small wood nesting doll and tosses that in, too.
In the script, I had written that Elsa carry with her a small token that we the audience is unaware of its significance. A week or so before we shot that scene, I asked Naïlia to arrive on set with an object that was meaningful to her. I also told her I didn’t need to know why. I preferred when my actors could keep their secrets theirs.”
4. The vintage card deck used in the father-daughter game of solitaire was from Durga’s own collection
“In a very early draft, I had written a scene involving a game of solitaire. It’s a tender moment between father and daughter, and personally, means a lot to me.
For a long time prior to shooting our movie, I began collecting vintage card decks, mostly unopened. I would scour eBay and Etsy with no plan to ever open the decks or use them, but likely, as is the case with most of my creative process, I had a feeling these decks would serve some purpose down the line. It’s always like that, isn’t it?
The day before we were meant to shoot the solitaire scene, the deck presented to me by our props team was lovely… but not right. I returned to my condo that evening and sorted through my collection of card decks (which of course I had packed for the shoot… why???) and settled on one with bright orange marigolds. I’m so happy they ended up in the film.”
5. Aliocha Schneider’s singing voice note to Durga is part of the film’s soundtrack
“Aliocha Schneider, who plays Cyril, sings us through the film. The first time I met him in person, we went for a walk around my neighbourhood in Montreal, just talking and getting to know each other. Afterwards, he sent me a voice note of him singing a song which I then wrote into the film. It’s one of my favourite scenes in Bonjour Tristesse.”
See the trailer
Bonjour Tristesse is streaming in the US on Apple TV, and in the UK from August 2025.
Ellie Hay is the director of lifestyle platform Patter and content agency Patter Studio whose clients including MUJI, COS and Margaret Howell. Her writing has been published in publications including AnOther and New York Times T Magazine. @ellie___hay