Mill Valley Film Festival 2019: SEBERG Substantiates Today’s Sociopolitical Suppression
Starring Kristen Stewart as Jean Seberg in the titular role, Seberg sees the ever-burgeoning actor playing her second real-life person (after Joan Jett in The Runaways), relinquishing, arguably, the finest performance of her eclectic career. And that’s what actors do. They relinquish. They release. They let go. They surrender to their emotions. Stewart surrenders fully to the character, embodying Seberg to an almost unearthly effect.
With a scene partner like the multifaceted Anthony Mackie, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse‘s insightful script, and Rachel Morrison‘s (Mudbound) gorgeous eye for cinematography, Seberg was destined to be a critically and culturally impactful film from day one of preproduction.
The Blurred Lines Between Stewart & Seberg
Seberg was a Hollywood actor who worked prominently in France. Stewart is a Hollywood actor who is universally beloved in France, having become the the first American actress to win a César Award (2015), the French equivalent of an Academy Award. She won best supporting actress for her role in Clouds of Sils Maria. Both actors were and are outspoken activists.
One can see the multitude of parallels between Seberg and Stewart, two admirably bold, influential iconoclasts. At first, it may not seem like a traditional role for Stewart, who has increasingly sought out more eccentric indie roles since her Twilight days. However, after comparing the two, Jean Seberg is, in many ways, indeed, a quintessential Kristen Stewart role.
If one frequents the IMDb trivia page for Seberg, one of only three statements mentions, “Kristen Stewart appears nude in the film.” That isn’t trivia. That isn’t news. It seems like more of a sleazy statement written by somebody who thought it might attract other likeminded creeps who would be attracted to a particular film based upon the amount of skin shown by its leading woman. The trivia statement should read something like, “Kristen Stewart speaks extensive French throughout the film, nailing Seberg’s particular American accent,” or, “Kristen Stewart was driven by a vindication for Seberg throughout her performance.”
Indeed, in an interview at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Stewart said, “A lot of the dialogue is in French, although her accent is terrible. So I have to learn more than I ever have, which will be fun. I’m getting a little closer to being even more French!” Seberg’s accent was deliberate. She didn’t want French citizen’s to think she was an entitled American trying to be French. She sidestepped the criticism by embracing her American accent, even accentuating it in a facetious way. Stewart channels Seberg’s voice, literally and figuratively, her accent, her words, and the meaning behind them, to hauntingly powerful results.
Generational Sociopolitical Parallels
J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO, the FBI’s domestic counterintelligence program, was a blatant violation of our First Amendment rights, among other things. Although technically designated to monitor and disrupt all hate groups, including white supremacist groups, Hoover was more interested in minority “extremist” parties, who naturally formed as a result of extreme organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and the hatred that they represent. They were more of a threat to him, because they posed the greatest threat to upsetting the status quo. He was corrupt. He was sick. He enjoyed planting “f*ck bugs” in the bedroom so that he could listen to his subjects having sex in the privacy of their own homes. He wanted to be a part of his subjects’ lives in a way that was unlawfully and perversely invasive.
When Seberg began donating to the Black Panther Party (BPP), the FBI went on a brutal crusade, making it a point to destroy both Seberg and Hakim Jamal’s (Mackie), whom she was romantically involved with, at the time. Jamal was Malcolm X’s cousin and a prominent member of both the BPP and the Nation of Islam. A high profile celebrity associating with the BPP was a gigantic threat to the FBI. They exploited their interracial relationship as a shameful act. They bugged every inch of every possession they owned. They destroyed their relationships. They published a false report of Seberg bearing Jamal’s child. They drove her to suicide. And they enjoyed it.
This what the FBI does. And Seberg exposes an example of it. After Hoover’s reign ended, the political assassinations and public smear campaigns decreased, but the U.S. government has always suppressed any civil rights movement. And anyone who tries to expose government corruption. To this day. From the CIA driving Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News to insanity and suicide for exposing the their involvement in causing the intercity crack epidemic in the 1980s, to the current administration’s stark stand against the LGBTQIA+ community (among the many shocking plans, the administration may redefine gender to that which you are assigned to at birth, effectively taking away federal transgender civil rights protections), history is…well…doomed to repeat itself. The U.S. government is terrified of the long-withstanding status quo being disrupted. But that is an inevitability.
However, Seberg does make it seem like it was a few bad apples, Hoover and his team, responsible for this corruption. It never is. The corruption in our government organizations are deep-rooted, institutionalized, and carried out on a daily basis. From the top of the heirarchy downwards. It is commonplace. Organizational. A fundamental part of the fabric of our branches of government. But I digress; thankfully, Seberg’s actions led to the disintegration of COINTELPRO.
In many ways, in light of the Marvel maelstrom, Stewart has already played a superhero in Jean Seberg. Besides, the actor, whom I recently interviewed, isn’t driven by the magnitude of a role, the size of a film, or the commercial appeal of a project. For Stewart, it is simply about substantive material and a connection to the character. Whether or not that happens to exist in an expensive cinematic world is all happenstance.
Good Bones Go A Long Way
Shrapnel and Waterhouse do a fine job of delving into the psyche of Seberg. What drives her. What hinders her. How she operates. The integrity of her character. The tragedy of her descent into mental illness, particularly given the context. We have our villain, the FBI, and the heroin, Seberg, and the conflict, her relationship to Jamal and involvement with the BPP.
Mackie is typically commendable as Jamal, the supporting protagonist with an equally tragic arc. Seberg isn’t afraid to sit in silence. Let a scene absorb its surroundings. Observe the intricacies of its setting and character idiosyncrasies. Sure, the film can drag, at times, in bouts of quotidian monotony. But that’s where Morrison comes in.
When Seberg wrapped filming, Morrison was eight months pregnant. I can only imagine what it’s like to be on your feet all day, shooting, with a human being inside of you. I’d be out of commission. Not everyone is cut out to be a woman, I suppose. Morrison, professional as always, captures some of her best work in Seberg.
During these extended scenes without dialogue, Morrison indulges in the uncanny period details captured in the production design by Jahmin Assa and the costume design by Michael Wilkinson. The etherial lighting of Seberg’s isolated home. The graininess of an old 16mm print. The way she highlights Stewart‘s expressive, green eyes as she reflects upon Seberg’s conflicted past and uncertain, terrifying future.
Seberg: An Important Film For Today’s Climate
The essential message of Seberg is that we, as a society, still haven’t fully embraced the concept of accepting minorities as human beings. There still exists institutional prejudice. In many ways, it is worse than the previous generation. Seberg appears to be a cautionary tale that shouldn’t be. The audience is inevitably left feeling frustrated at the injustices Seberg and BPP (whose larger societal suffering adds another contextual layer) endured.
However, Seberg had a fundamental right to donate to whichever organization she wanted to. Programs such as COINTELPRO attempt to equate the BPP with white hate groups. However, one is offensive, one is defensive, a reaction to the hatred, a mobilization of culture and common goals to achieve in order to overcome said hate. Today, many try to equate groups such as Antifa with white nationalist groups. It’s the exact same, problematic mode of thinking.
Just as Stewart hoped to accomplish, Seberg vindicates the iconic French New Wave actor in Seberg, effectively exposes the corruption of Hoover’s COINTELPRO, gives viewers a peek behind the curtain into a politically divided time presciently reflective of today’s society, and offers an iconic, tour de force performance from Stewart.
What did you think of Stewart’s performance? Did you enjoy Stewart and Mackie’s chemistry? What were some of the weighty themes you may have reflected upon after viewing Seberg?
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