Bonjour Tristesse

When Cécile goes downstairs the next morning, she finds Anne already made up for the day, looking effortlessly stylish. Cécile sits down to eat an orange and some coffee. Anne demands that Cécile eat some bread and butter, claiming that Cécile is too thin. Raymond enters and jokes about “two little girls sunning themselves and discussing bread and butter.” Anne retorts, albeit playfully, that she is Raymond’s age. Elsa comes down later, her eyes still swollen with sleep. She seems unintimidated by Anne, and Cécile assumes this is because Elsa is 13 years younger.

 After breakfast, Cécile changes into her bathing suit and heads to the sea. She encounters Cyril there, sitting on his boat. He embraces her tenderly, and Cécile muses that he must already love her. She’d like to feel that same way about him.

Cyril leaves at half-past 11:00, and then Cécile sees Raymond, Anne, and Elsa make their way down the path. Anne removes her wrap and lies down in the sand in her bathing suit. She looks terrific, and Cécile looks at her father, “raising an eyebrow of approval,” but he doesn’t respond. Red-haired, fair-skinned Elsa, meanwhile, is “in a lamentable condition” due to her horrible sunburn.

Anne turns to Cécile and asks about her recent exam. Cécile happily declares that she failed it. Unsmiling, Anne insists Cécile try to pass it in October. Raymond interjects to say it’s no big deal either way—Cécile can just find a man to take care of her. Elsa laughs, but she stops when no one else does. Anne, however, holds firm that Cécile must study over summer vacation. Cécile is horrified, but Anne’s mind is made up. She closes her eyes to signal the conversation is over. Cécile sees her father looking at Anne with a familiar  “resolute stare.” Abruptly, Cécile runs to the water and jumps in, “bemoaning the gay vacation we might have had.”