By Zoe Leininger
Among this year’s impressive line up of female driven narratives is director Benedict Andrews’ latest film Seberg. This political thriller about Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) star Jean Seberg explores themes of civil unrest and distrust of government that link closely with issues of concern today. A parallel structure of two opposing storylines is instrumental in illustrating the fear and anxiety of the time in Seberg’s life when she was being spied on by the government. Through these elements and some amazing acting, this film is able to paint a vivid picture of a celebrity trying to make a difference and ending up being used for a political agenda.
The narrative of the film alternates between the lives of Jean Seberg and Jack Solomon, the fictional FBI agent assigned to watch her for signs of involvement in the Black Panther Movement. While the focus on Solomon’s story at times seemed to overshadow Seberg’s storyline, the life Kristen Stewart brings to the character keeps her the central focus of the dramatic events of the film. The addition of a male character who shares the spotlight with Seberg is a choice that could have undermined the impact of her story. However, instead of shifting the focus from Seberg the parallel storylines highlight the disparity between the way that female and male characters are portrayed.
The narrative of the film alternates between the lives of Jean Seberg and Jack Solomon, the fictional FBI agent assigned to watch her for signs of involvement in the Black Panther Movement. While the focus on Solomon’s story at times seemed to overshadow Seberg’s storyline, the life Kristen Stewart brings to the character keeps her the central focus of the dramatic events of the film. The addition of a male character who shares the spotlight with Seberg is a choice that could have undermined the impact of her story. However, instead of shifting the focus from Seberg the parallel storylines highlight the disparity between the way that female and male characters are portrayed.
 Opening sequence showing Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart) as Joan of Arc |  Jack Solomon (Jack O'Connell) watching the scene from Saint Joan |
The film opens with a re-creation of a scene from Seberg’s first film Saint Joan (Otto Preminger, 1957). Seberg plays Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake because the Bishop was scared by the idea of a woman wearing armor and leading an army. Seberg was actually burned during the filming of this scene, foreshadowing the way her own crusade would end up making her a martyr like the woman she portrayed on screen. When she speaks out on the controversial topic of Civil Rights, aspects of her gender are used against her in rumors of illegitimate pregnancy.
Solomon watches a wider, high angle part of this scene later in the film right before he pins her picture up on a wall of other people the FBI is watching. This places him in the position of the one sentencing her and watching while she burns.
The way the parallel stories are crosscut together makes their personal and professional lives to be directly compared to each other. We see a lot of Solomon’s home life with his expectant wife. Their solid relationship is sometimes strained by the secrecy of his work, but she supports him when she sees he is struggling with the moral dilemmas of his job. This contrasts with Seberg who is shown to have a loving husband and son, and then not long after starts an affair with Black Panther leader Hakim Jamal. This affair ends up drastically affecting the lives of her, Jamal, and their spouses.
While she uses her professional life to promote equality and civil rights, he uses his professional life to bring her to a state of paranoia and depression. It is her personal life that gives the government the means to undermine Jamal and what he stands for by spreading rumors about the affair. This opens up an interesting idea of double standards for morality.
Can someone stand for a good cause while also making wrong personal choices? While Seberg’s public acts to support the civil rights movement are shown as positive, it is the negative personal decisions that are scrutinized and used to sabotage the Black Panthers. When the news of the affair is leaked by the government agents who were spying on her, the spouses were unable to see past the affair to the good she was doing for the movement.
Conversely to this was the wholesome nature of Solomon’s relationship with his wife. They are supportive and in love. But he performs his job of invading Seberg’s privacy to the extent that she is unable to function properly because she is terrified that someone is always watching or listening. This juxtaposition of two very different lives that are entwined in such a twisted way makes a comparison that finds both of the characters wanting and leaves the audience with the question of which crimes will they excuse.
Solomon watches a wider, high angle part of this scene later in the film right before he pins her picture up on a wall of other people the FBI is watching. This places him in the position of the one sentencing her and watching while she burns.
The way the parallel stories are crosscut together makes their personal and professional lives to be directly compared to each other. We see a lot of Solomon’s home life with his expectant wife. Their solid relationship is sometimes strained by the secrecy of his work, but she supports him when she sees he is struggling with the moral dilemmas of his job. This contrasts with Seberg who is shown to have a loving husband and son, and then not long after starts an affair with Black Panther leader Hakim Jamal. This affair ends up drastically affecting the lives of her, Jamal, and their spouses.
While she uses her professional life to promote equality and civil rights, he uses his professional life to bring her to a state of paranoia and depression. It is her personal life that gives the government the means to undermine Jamal and what he stands for by spreading rumors about the affair. This opens up an interesting idea of double standards for morality.
Can someone stand for a good cause while also making wrong personal choices? While Seberg’s public acts to support the civil rights movement are shown as positive, it is the negative personal decisions that are scrutinized and used to sabotage the Black Panthers. When the news of the affair is leaked by the government agents who were spying on her, the spouses were unable to see past the affair to the good she was doing for the movement.
Conversely to this was the wholesome nature of Solomon’s relationship with his wife. They are supportive and in love. But he performs his job of invading Seberg’s privacy to the extent that she is unable to function properly because she is terrified that someone is always watching or listening. This juxtaposition of two very different lives that are entwined in such a twisted way makes a comparison that finds both of the characters wanting and leaves the audience with the question of which crimes will they excuse.
 Jack Solomon (Jack O'Connell) gives Jean (Kristen Stewart) the information the FBI has gathered on her. |
At the end of the film Seberg and Solomon meet and he explains who he is and what he did. She gets angry but then asks him about his family. When he explains that his wife is expecting their first child she tells him to go home to them. She separated from her husband and miscarried her second child during this time as a result of the vicious rumors spread about her. But she is putting aside the harm his work did to her to tell him to preserve his personal life in the way she couldn’t with her own. This ending gives something of an answer to the question stated earlier but it is up to the audience to decide if it is good enough.
The film ends with Seberg in a relatively stable place after calling out the rumors of the illegitimate pregnancy as false and the reason she miscarried. She takes control of her life back by seeing the information they had on her and letting Solomon walk away from her. The title cards that come up after the film is over tell us that even though the government surveillance program was disbanded and Seberg kept supporting the Black Panther movement, in 1979 she was found dead in her car after having gone missing for ten days. Her death was ruled a suicide. The control that she lost during the whole episode was never fully regained.
Seberg’s story isn’t an inspirational one with a neat Hollywood ending. It is an illustration of what people can do out of fear when a strong woman stands up for what she believes in.
The film ends with Seberg in a relatively stable place after calling out the rumors of the illegitimate pregnancy as false and the reason she miscarried. She takes control of her life back by seeing the information they had on her and letting Solomon walk away from her. The title cards that come up after the film is over tell us that even though the government surveillance program was disbanded and Seberg kept supporting the Black Panther movement, in 1979 she was found dead in her car after having gone missing for ten days. Her death was ruled a suicide. The control that she lost during the whole episode was never fully regained.
Seberg’s story isn’t an inspirational one with a neat Hollywood ending. It is an illustration of what people can do out of fear when a strong woman stands up for what she believes in.
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