I once read that Durga Chew-Bose defined the concept of elegance as “arriving without a commute story.” It’s a useful bon mot, one that came to mind this past summer when I learned that she had just wrapped shooting Françoise Sagan’s classic novel Bonjour Tristesse as her directorial debut. Over the years, I’ve followed her work with the same shy fascination she once used to describe the “older girls” of her youth. As we age, older girls become movie directors. Chew-Bose is a one of those rare types of women creatives that have a way with words, a way with things, a way with time. It’s easy to imagine she will step lightly into the canon of the famed directrices; she who captures achingly beautiful girlhood with sound measure and sparkling texture. In my mind, it’s dreamy and sharp, full of gold bagels, and lavender-ish light. It may be unusual to consider a movie like this in this in-between time—after filming and before any of the buzz builds—but then again, that is when elegance takes form, in transit.
Maria Echeverri is a creative director and the co-founder of Marfala, a studio based between New York and Bogota, Colombia.