France | 2008 | col | 120 mins | dir. Diane Kurys, with Sylvie Testud, Pierre Palmade, Jeanne Balibar, Arielle Dombasle | cert. 15

Novelist Françoise Sagan, incarnated in a feisty performance by Sylvie Testud, had an angst-driven, jet-setter lifestyle. When she published Bonjour Tristesse - an existentialist-inspired treatise of Parisian teenage immorality - at the age of 18, she became an overnight cultural sensation, garnering a slew of prizes and catapulting to the top of the bestseller list. Her life afterward, which the film follows from the stardom year of 1954 to her death in 2004, is depicted as one long, intoxicated downhill ride, marked by scandals, arrests and the occasional drug overdose. Testud gives an energetic yet understated performance, reveling in the writer's legendary witty straight talk, which she delivers with excellent timing and finesse.

sat 14 nov |  6.00pm | £9, conc. £7