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Sylvie Testud's sensational performance bestrides this biopic of Françoise Sagan
Saturday, 03 April 2010
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/51fd4e073a5c230f82bf528d466f6b2c.jpg?itok=svzp6tCf)
Whisky, cigarettes, gambling and the little black dress: Sylvie Testud in a typical moment from Sagan
A sensational performance by Sylvie Testud is the singular reason to catch this rambling biopic of Françoise Sagan - bestselling novelist, high-rolling playgirl, multiple addict, flamboyant bisexual, monstre sacré - which plays in repertory throughout April at the French Institute's Ciné Lumière. Testud, one of France's best young actresses (also currently to be seen illuminating Lourdes as a desperate young pilgrim), takes no prisoners in her electrifying account of the writer's train wreck of a life over half a century, from the precocious literary star who stormed the world in 1954, aged 19, with Bonjour Tristesse to her death, raddled, bitter, broke and alone, in 2004.
A sensational performance by Sylvie Testud is the singular reason to catch this rambling biopic of Françoise Sagan - bestselling novelist, high-rolling playgirl, multiple addict, flamboyant bisexual, monstre sacré - which plays in repertory throughout April at the French Institute's Ciné Lumière. Testud, one of France's best young actresses (also currently to be seen illuminating Lourdes as a desperate young pilgrim), takes no prisoners in her electrifying account of the writer's train wreck of a life over half a century, from the precocious literary star who stormed the world in 1954, aged 19, with Bonjour Tristesse to her death, raddled, bitter, broke and alone, in 2004.
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