SEBERG

US, 2019, 102 minutes, Colour.
Kristin Stewart, Jack O' Connell, Anthony Mackie, Yvan Attal, Margaret Qualley, Vince Vaughn, Colm Meaney, Stephen Root.
Directed by Benedict Andrews.

For the ordinary filmgoers making a selection for a film to see, the title will probably mean nothing. There will be a need for a bit of further investigation information. But, for the film buff and for those who remember films from the past, Seberg will instantly denote the actress, Jean Seberg.

The film gives some very brief indications as to who Jean Seberg was, born in the midwest in 1938, an audition at 17 for her ambitions to be an actress, playing the part of Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger’s St Joan (and a glimpse of her seen of burning at the stake with the revelation that the flames got to her with some disfigurement). There is brief reference to her success in the first part of the 1960s in Paris, participating in the French Nouvelle Vague, especially with the film, Breathless. And that is it until the action for this film begins in 1968, her going to the United States to film Paint Your Wagon.

Seberg is actually about Jean Seberg’s political activity, her sympathy for African-American? movements of the period, Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panthers. Which immediately put her under suspicion from J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. The film focuses on the FBI agents, their surveillance on the actress and her contacts with the agitators, video surveillance in her home, when she went out, microphones everywhere, photographs and files, the creation of stories to undermine her and her reputation, to damage her career.

If an expose of this kind of government agencies, their surveillance and its intrusion into people’s lives causes agitation and revulsion, this is a story to foster that antipathy. Whatever the alleged needs for security, the way that the FBI hounded public figures (think of Jane Fonda in the early 1970s in the Vietnam war, Hanoi Jane), was reprehensible of the time, even more in retrospect. This is especially true of the fabrications, the connivance of the media, the merciless hounding.

The Jean Seberg presented here, with an arresting performance by Kristen Stewart, is a woman on edge, unhappy in her second marriage to the novelist, Romain Gary (Yvan Attal) and suspicious of his behaviour, with a son, living in Paris, invited to Hollywood. It is no wonder that she will become more and more paranoid with suspicions about the FBI, eventually depressed (with the final information of the mysterious aspects of her suicide in 1979).

While the film indicates that she was making films, reference to Airport, a film in Mexico, the focus is on Jean Seberg herself, her suspicions, increasing information about what was happening to her. On the flight from Paris, she encounters an activist, Anthony Mackie, who stages an episode about African- Americans being excluded from first-class. She joins him on the tarmac for a provocative photo, is photographed by the FBI.She has an affair with him. Colm Meaney plays the head of the local FBI agency. Vince Vaughn is a seasoned agent, skilled in creating smears stories. By contrast, Jack O’ Connell plays a young agent who believes in the FBI mission, becomes more involved in the surveillance, more infatuated by the actress, even to warning her about the surveillance.

A portrait of an actress at a difficult stage in her life which may not appeal to a wide public. For those who remember Jean Seberg, there may be some disappointment in not seeing much about her film career but an opportunity to focus on her being victimised by the FBI.

1. Jean Seberg, her life, career, the FBI surveillance and files?

2. Audience knowledge of Jean Seberg, her life, her films, the FBI? Audience interest in her? As a symbolic case of government surveillance?

3. Information about her, her birth in 1938, Iowa, her addition at 17, appearing in St Joan, Otto Preminger, the fire and the effect on her body? Her move to Paris? Her films and her success as a symbol of the Nouvelle Vague? Her marrying Romain Gary? Kristen Stewart’s performance, the use of this background in developing a character?

4. 1968, age 30, the status of her career, going to the United States, accompanied by her agent, to appear in Paint Your Wagon? The tensions in the United States? Her marriage, its tensions, her son? Going to Los Angeles, the apartment, her work? Her husband’s visits, her son? The affluent style? On the plane, the discussions with her agent, the Hakim stunt, first-class seats? Her intervention? The landing, in the photos with Hakim, the media? The FBI interest?

5. Hakim and his background, race issues of the time, the late 1960s, the Black Panthers, Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver…? J Edgar Hoover and the FBI? Frank Rolley and his interventions, the agents, Kowalski and his experience, at his desk, fabricating stories? Jack Solomon, being new?

6. The surveillance, the cameras, recordings, files, strategies, guilt by association with Hakim, Jean Seberg and the media, destroying a reputation?

7. Hakim, his family, the encounter with Jean, the affair, his education interest, her donations? Her husband and his reaction? Hakim’s wife and her reaction? The love between the two, breaking, the visits and discussions, all under surveillance? The range of photos? The different files and their being kept?

8. Jack, his wife, the relationship, her pregnancy, his infatuation with Jean Seberg, concern about her, the surveillance, the photos, the hours of his life, unpredictable? The FBI plots, his phoning Jean and warning her, her hostile reaction? His going to Paris, taking the file, offering it to her, the refusal? The effect of this experience, with the FBI authorities? The future of his family?

9. Jean, her work in LA, the film, socials, the growing paranoia, suspicions, the warnings, the discussions with her husband, his searching the house for surveillance? Going to New York for the premiere? Her husband going with her? The son and his return to Paris? Her going to Mexico, the film, her tantrum, her pregnancy? The FBI using this, the implications of Hakim’s paternity, the story fed to the media, the fabrications, especially by Kowalski? Her husband and the suggestion that they sue?

10. Attention and growing stronger, her fears, behaviour, the taking of the pills, the headlines about attempted suicide? According the press conference, her clarity in presenting the issues?

11. Her return to Paris, her not working in Hollywood after this, 10 years later and the circumstances of her death?