Zoey Deutch as style icon Jean Seberg in new movie

Long before we had “Emily in Paris” there was a Jean Seberg. With her iconic and effortlessly modern style: blonde pixie crop, slouchy Breton tops, cigarette pants and ballet flats – the young American actress from a small town in Iowa, went on to became a movie legend and ironically also the ultimate symbol of “French girl style” in the 60s.

Now, actress Zoey Deutch plays Seberg in a new movie. Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” (“New Wave”), which features in the Cannes festival’s competition lineup this year, tells the story about the making of another classic film: Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” (“À bout de souffle”). Other than Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg, Guillaume Marbeck, Aubry Dullin and Adrien Rouyard embody Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo and François Truffaut.

The term Nouvelle Vague or The French New Wave is a style of French cinema that emerged in the late 1950s. Directors Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Agnès Varda, among others, were at the forefront of the movement, which rejected traditional filmmaking. Linklater’s new movie echoes Godard’s signature style: from filming in French, on black-and-white celluloid, to using his preferred 1:37 aspect ratio and even shooting on the original locations he once used.

The real-life Jean Seberg first rose to prominence after winning a widely publicized contest to cast an unknown actress as Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger’s “Saint Joan”. Though the reviews were unkind, her career took a turn when marriage brought her to France. There, she was cast in Godard’s Breathless as a young American aspiring journalist drawn into a criminal affair. “Breathless” catapulted both Seberg and co-star Jean Paul Belmondo to fame when it was released in 1960. It also made Jean Seberg a style icon. Seberg was very outspoken about her love of Paris, and Paris seemed to love her. She went on to act in both European and American cinema for the next decade. But Seberg was far more than a movie star and style icon: she donated part of her earnings to civil rights causes. One such donation was to the Black Panther Party. Among other donations, she hosted a fundraiser at her home in April 1969, an event that drew a star-studded crowd, including Lee Marvin, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jane Fonda.

Seberg’s contribution drew the attention of the FBI and under J. Edgar Hoover’s leadership, the bureau launched a years-long campaign of intense surveillance and smear tactics against Seberg and resulted in her career spiraling downwards and ended with her dying at the age of 40, after an apparent suicide, according to French police. The Seberg case showed the lengths the FBI would go to sabotage those associated with the Panthers.

Richard Linklater’s intention with the new film, featuring Zoey Dutch as Seberg, was to plunge the camera back into 1959 and recreate the era, the people, the atmosphere when Godard made his celebrated movie. While the real Jean Seberg was not dressed by Chanel in “Breathless”, she frequently wore Chanel’s creations off screen. Her style has traversed generations and continues to be a major source of inspiration. For this reason, the Chanel house agreed to create a series of silhouettes in collaboration with costume designer Pascaline Chavanne for the new movie, and designed pieces for the characters of Jean Seberg and Juliette Gréco, played by Alix Benezech. Meticulous research was carried out to find fabrics similar to the original designs. The silhouettes have been recreated thanks to the Haute Couture techniques inherited from Gabrielle Chanel, and the fashion house also lent accessories and jewellery for the character of Jean Seberg, as well as providing make-up for the actresses.

In Cannes Zoey Deutch wore a reproduction of a Haute Couture bustier dress from the Spring Summer 1956 collection imagined by Gabrielle Chanel.  The silhouette, contemporary to “Breathless”, associates two-tone striped taffeta to beige dotted organza. A pair of shoes by Massaro and a bag matching the bustier have been specially created for Deutch by Chanel.

All photos with curtesy of Chanel.

Movie stills by Jean Louis Fernandez