1957-09-25 — Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY," SEPTEMBER 25, 1957.

The Most Misunderstood Girl in The World...

by NANCY SPAIN

TOW would you feel if YOUR_22-year-old daughter, girl friend, wife, sister were

How

felt Xung

★HE was panting a little, like an animal at bay, and she felt a moment of emotion which made her give him her telephone number sooner than she usually did. From then on the exchange "Elysees" became the symbol of life and progress for him.

MATCHING her dreams with reality by a miracle of compromise between time and sentimentality which enn only take place in the mind of a second-rate per- son, she was the triumphant young actress who preferred the conversation of a cultured man of letters to the frivolous pleasures of a night club; for success should nut exclude originality,

WATCHING the play of headlights on the road, deciphering the singals of fear and friendship which one driver sends to another at night by means of their lights.

To those who had been following the subterranean course of their own passions or inclinations, the hot June sunshine arrived as a shock.

WRITING is just having a sheet of paper, a pen, and not the shadow of an Iden what you're going to say,

THE UNLIKELY FACTS

ROLEX

EVERYONE

JEAN SEBERG

LIMELIGHT

AT LARGE

St Joan on the phone

This is the basic story, Round wild," selfishje destructive unrest il are some brilliantly des- of the newest mixed-up genero- pairing pen portraits of minor tion. A generation whose faults characters, beautifully done--at you have nirendy judged, the sort of raffish, smart people analysed, and condemned. that hang around at literary parties all over the world. The Gort of people Sagan knows only too well. People without shadows or hearts. Zoinbles indeed,

And in this book Sagan con- demns them, their emptiness, their meaningless love affairs, their easy emotiona,

portrait

She draws o savage of a theatrical producer-"he might be a degenerate from his hla gestures." A publisher and

to gossip and wife who like make jokes. An actress with a heart of wood, with emotions of sawdust.

I think myself that Sapan is above this, a ttle bit ahead of her generation. A leader, in faet.

to

1

is

And I think it she were seek out people who are little bit cleverer than she during the next few years whe might grow into a writer of real proportions.

FAITH

today goes to the Riviéra to focus – on the trials of JEAN SEBERG

The girl who gets

a 2,000,000 dollar second chance

DEBORAHI Kerr, precariously balanced on water skis, is skimming through the

sen. David Niven, in goggles and flippers, is doing battle with a jellyfish the sun is condescending to shine a very pretty French girl Mylene Demangeot, in a hat the size of a parasol, is cavorting about the rocks saying "Aren't I beautiful," and being chased by a photographer with a Lolea. Nothing here to disturb the expensive tranquillity.

To the casut! onlookers In their pedalos, the scene is เค Idyllic as a colour plate in a fan magazine,

by THOMAS WISEMAN

But come a little closes. Be- low the surface, - there are strange cross-currents. Which Is only to be expected, for 1 I watched her at work at La ore old enough to be an actress strange game of chance is being Fosette, a French publisher's you are too old to be a star." played hare-which, perhaps, villa overlooking the sea where has more in common with Itus- much of the flim is being shot, David Niven, who recently had sian roulette then with the She is a slight, trafi-lough girl 9 highly publicised row WILM more conventional version play with her hair cut very short and Preminger during the making of ed at the nearby Casino,

eyes full of determination. the flim sald: Otto and I are During a long and arduous test great friends. That row was all for St Joan, Preminger barked due to a misunderstanding. Ho

manner: "You want to quit?" pose he treats Jean the way ha To which she replied: "I keep does because he knows that is going until you drop dead."

the way to get the best out of her. It Is nothing compared to what he sold to me once when I was rehearsing The Moon Is Blue for him on the stage."

DOUBTFUL FACTOR n his most frightening is a wonderful director. I sup-

The amount 2,000,000 dollars which is

at stake 13 the cost of a film that Otto Pre- minger is making here

called Bonjour Tristesse. The novel by Francoise Sagan from which i Is adapted, has sold more than a

She is still conducting herself on this principle.

But now Preminger has taken of the kid gloves and handles

million copies, so success would her with as much gentleness as

seem to be assured. And 11 would

Miss Seberg agrees that Preminger treatment is what sho the

needs. "Of course," she says, “I.

be, but for one factor-a girl of Professor Higgins lavished upon am frightened of him. Some-

18 by the name of Jean Seberg, a girl who may or may not be n star.

Miss Seberg, faith

Beyond them all are lyrical descriptions of Paris-Parls in despair, a lovelom Parls,

own knows,

personality. "Paris was reduced for him," against the force of her

"We cry when we are born," writes Sogan, "to two circuits: more or less, the one tay between his office ond-she writes arat what follows maddening, contradic- the theatre and the other from can only be an attenuation

the theatre to her flat. Every this cry." tory romantic facts one is familiar about Francoise Sagan, with these. In- the unlikely young finitely

French writer who is

Email

elreum -

erotices which

the heart of a great city,”

It

was

the

this little book

such a violent success love creates in that she has nearly kill ed herself at the same her time as she made fortune and created a Legend.

I think she is the most mis- understood, mixed-up itid of her Generation.

manuscript of

(it is only 124

She drives fast curs. She has wreckage

ví

pages) That WAS found with covered

blood In the

ear

when

crasheri

sbe this

spring

this.

What a lesson

crashed one. At 22 she agrees

to marry Guy Schoeller, Sagan's

a middle-aged publisher with an 11-year-old daughter.

No one quite believes

although her book is dedicated

him.

Sagan's dedications

to

Brouse Bussip in Paris where they are said to be a year out of date.

She gives out that she is so "worn" by Prese interviews that she is going on holiday to the South, and then she crops up in the middle of the most public- ity-prone party at St Tropez: the unit which is making her own film of "Bonjour Tristesse."

PUZZLED

YET she comes from a per-

YET

fectly reasonable middle- class family. Her real name is Quoirez. She has Д devoted father, a brother who also likes speed. When I met her I found her quiet, melancholy, shy, more than a tle puzzled. No won- der, I thought, when I finished reading her book.

Here is a little girl with an uncomfortable load of genius,

Here is, without doubt, the smart book of the year, the book that everyone will want to

be seen, reading.

publication

Yet even Its carries a typical Sagan cloud of chaos. In France it is called "In A Month, In a Year." In Eng- land and America it is to titled, "Those Without Shadows."

be

You will not be ablo to read it in English, in an immaculate translation, until October 20, when it will be published by John Murray, Lord Byron's pub- Hishers.

It is oil about a girl called Josce; rich, Independent, who drives a largo American car. She is in the middle of a love affair with Jacques. Jarques only loves himself. Josee is also loved by a second-rata writer and publisher's reader onlod Bernard,

นี

Barnard goes off to write book. Josce follows him," out of kindnes to Bernard's wife. Ono way and another they mees things up until Bernard's wido nosely dies and Jacques leaves

girl of

for 22, lo wake one muring in hos- dragged pital, back from death, to read the front

on

page of the

the world that

or

The

Eliza Doolittle.

THE TREATMENT

al commands

times his words cut right through me and I am on tho verge of tears. But I know it is what I need. I can be very lazy and I need to be bullied to get me to work."

who had

yourself properly... Darling, small-town teenager

never been to a big city, had

ALL weting, all life, is an act ♫ of faith. And what

discovered by this extraordinary. sensitive. Preminger after a world-wide

He barks out battling, idiotic, showing-off kid talent hunt, was given the role is going to need to struggle on of St Joan In his recent fm her: "Stand straight, let your

She has crammed into the which the critics burned at the hands hang naturally. You slake, Miss Seberg received per-

weren't thinking when you sald Pust year as much growing-up an racst girls would do in ten years haps

most devastating that line. It was flat, meaning end more than some do ini

You've got to think. The time. When she was discovered ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

life notices any newcomer to filma les has ever had. She was no way you say that line, I don't

typically American quite as bed as most people said, believe it... Relax. Hold she was a but she was not good.

do you have to stem the door like that? You make the whole house shake. I'm a pretty rude mon and even 1 don't slam doors cried. After the big bulld-up, like that.... Why did you stop this was the big let-down and then?

shoes ...your she was not prepared for it, in 417 even if your shoes don'! the space of one year the life at fit you should be able to go on." this phurmacist's daughter from Marshalltown (population Miss Seberg accepts criticism 10.000), Iowa, had undergone the and praise (she gets that, too) mos! drastic metamorphosis with humility and an occasional

tremble, since Eliza Doolittle.

newspapers nt

you are Identi

fied with the FRANCOISE SAGAN

violent success

When she read her notices, Miss Seberg, alone in her hotel room In Nice, broke down ard

don't

Preminger had attempted n "It is quite good for her to be real-Ufe.Pygmailon experiment frightened of me," says Premin with Jean Seberg and when it ger. "When she is frightened, had come to the test he had not she works. Otherwise she tends heen able to pass her olf as an to be sloppy and doesn't think." There can be no doubt that he succeeds in rightening Sometimes he is not aware how well he succeeds.

actress.

Tu Miss Seberg, weeping in Nice, this may have seemed like the Anal curtain. But it was only the interval. In dellance of the advice of friends and colleagues, Preminger kept his promise and from his

the main gave her Bonjour Tristesse.

girl,"

(n

never seen a film star in nesh.

the

Treminger and his team had not only to teach her to net but also how to

held a knife and fork. Today, only 12 months later, she has a sophistication, a polec and a self-assurance that ore frightening. One member of the film unit sald: "If that giri ever becomes a star she will be qulle unbearable."-

CONFLICT

"Perhaps

She says herself. from my point of view it is m good thing I was a fallure her. St Joan or I might be even more

of impossible than I am."

distinct

as

19 (3

To some people she is quite impossible ehough as it is: His intentions

them, her self-assurance tone of voice) are merely cockiness; her poise role in Endly: "I have faith In that

of a basic con- Just evidence Guys. "otherwise I he

ceitedness.. But all these judg given her the "It is true," he said, "that it wouldn't have

Sure she still has things ments are unfair: they fall to take into accourt the confusion cast Audrey Hepburn part,

not know instead of Jean Seberg It would to learn about acting. But that

whether to behavo likte a star or have been less of a risk. But 1 is how it is in films, When Kim of a girl who does

Novak started she knew even preferred to take the risk.”

less about neting then Jean

I had

like a nonentity for the simple reason that she does not yet

A lot, then, is at stake. A lut Scberg. In this business when know whether she is a star or a

depends on an 18-year-old girl you are young enough to be a nenentity, whose knowledge of life is s flar you ore usually too young limited as her acting experience, to be an actress and when you

-(London Express Service).

ANOTHER LITTLE RISE IN CANCERS!

Tobacconis

ALL

[STOCK

KATHONNED

REGULAR

ONLY

"Morning, Doctor."