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She was from a large town in Iowa and became the darling of Paris. She alternated between small European films and big Hollywood movies, on the way helping Jean-Luc Godard to shape contemporary cinema. She moved between the worlds of show business and politics, from private and state dinners with leaders to clandestine activities supporting groups and individuals on both sides of the Atlantic. She was a unique person ahead of her time.Breathless tells the story of the woman who, after a disastrous film debut inSaint Joan, became both acclaimed international actress (Lilith, Dead of Summer) and popular star (Paint Your Wagon, Airport). It also tells of the FBI's campaign to "neutralize" Seberg, and the still unsolved mystery of her death in 1979 at the age of 40. Featuring exclusive interviews with family, friendsand acquaintances, Jean Seberg - Breathless includes personal letters and obscure quotes from the subject, and more than sixty rare photographs.Iowa-born Garry McGee is a documentary filmmaker and author. Jean Seberg -Breathless is his fourth book. His book with Jean Russell Larson, Neutralized: the FBI versus Jean Seberg, is also being published by BearManor Media. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Jean Seberg IS breathless
Although I felt this book fell a bit short on creating a satisfying picture of Seberg's personality, it did give an excellent overview of her life and travails.She is someone who rose to fame at the time of a great turbulence in America (the 1960s), and it makes this bio historically fascinating.With the exception of Godard's "Breathless," Seberg's other excellent performances such as "Bonjour Tristesse" and "Lilith" have not been given their due.One thing this book lacks is a more contemporary view of her performances, given the perspective of time."Saint Joan" is given short shrift historically and by comments Seberg made about her own performance.Today, her Joan of Arc comes across as a document of a young actor learning how to give a strong, emotional and intimate performance, and then by the end of the film, giving one.She learned along the way and in that regard it's a fascinating film to watch.Though I enjoyed this book very much, and would heartily recommend it to anyone at all interested in Jean Seberg, I felt it could have gone deeper into her psyche.Barry Paris' bio of Louise Brooks is the standard on which I base bios of famous actors.Few bios come close the depth of that book.There's a bit of that in McGee's Breathless, but I came away feeling a bit like the surface was skimmed rather than the depths plumbed.Nevertheless, as an overview of Seberg's films and life, this is very much worth reading.

Jean Seberg: All these years later, she still leaves us "Breathless"
And you thought Marilyn was tragic.
Garry McGee's "Jean Seberg--Breathless" is the heartbreaking story of the life, loves, life, career and death of one of the most startling beauties ever seen on the silver screen. Perhaps most astounding about Seberg's career is that, although she made a fair number of films with some great (and not so great) directors, only one truly captures her beauty and spirit.
That's not to say the camera wasn't enraptured with Seberg; her beauty prevented her from ever looking in a truly bad light, regardless of her age or weight. Yet "Saint Joan," "Bonjour Tristesse," "Lilith" and "Paint Your Wagon" pale (and eventually fade) when compared to Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 New Wave masterpiece, "Breathless." Save Garbo in "Queen Christina," no other movie actress has ever looked so beautiful on the movie screen.
McGee's narrative is both nimble and inclusive, seldom pausing for theory but compiling the events and facts which led up to a tragedy of near-epic proportion. Literally picked out of thousands for someone to play the title role in Otto Preminger "Saint Joan" (1957), this unsure, insecure girl from Marshalltown, Iowa was thrust into the limelight of stardom and international politics.
From her rise through mediocre movies to international success, through her great love and eventual marriage to novelist and diplomat Romain Gary, to her eventual suicide (or possible murder) brought about by her involvement with the Black Panther movement and resulting persecution by J. Edgar Hoover, McGee is riveting in style and content.
There are really no heroes or villains here, except Hoover who really does deserve to continue burning in the deepest pit of hell. Yet the author draws a portrait of the machinations of cold war intrigue and politics, as well as the rise, persecution and fall of a provincial American movie star who becomes both a symbol and a locus of hatred for the American spy system. Today,
Seberg's story would make a brilliant motion picture, truly capturing the mores and folkways of the time; the problem is, who is beautiful enough to play her?

Breathless
Very good book, Garry McGee did a fantastic job putting together the information for this book.I suggest everyone buy this book and read it.

ahead of her time
I bought this book because my husband grew up near Seberg's hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa, and he always wanted to know more about her. He doesn't read much except farm magazines and veterinary journals, but he read this book almost every night and enjoyed it. It has the right combination of childhood background, photos, movie industry gossip, and film history. A tragic and fascinating story of a young woman thrust into films without enough supervision and guidance.

Jean Seberg: New Testament
Before Mia, Twiggy & Edie, there was Jean Seberg, the original Pixie. Because her successors were, well, more successful, Jean often gets overlooked when it comes time to dole out the honors to the women who influenced the style, shape & complexion of 60's femininity. Her initial screen persona was as a kind of child-woman, pretty but not overtly sexualized. Throughout her career, her image morphed back and forth through a kind of Tippi Hedren look to the boyish, close-cropped style she had in "Breathless", the film for which she is most known, and which showcased her unique appeal most effectively.

Shirley Maclaine and Audrey Hepburn were in a similar vein with their child-women personas. These actresses all were forging a new kind of feminine identity, with a naturalness that hadn't been seen on the screen before.Of them all, I find Seberg the most interesting screen presence, if not necessarily the best actress. Is it only because she came to a tragic end that she is more compelling and enigmatic on the screen?

Certainly her performances in "Breathless", "Lillith" and even "Bon Jour Tristesse" are little marvels. Acting-wise, she reminds me of Louise Brooks, in as much as her acting doesn't announce itself boldly. It's humble, poetic, watercolory. She is not so in love with her technique that her subtle effects are marred by the bold, show-offy strokes of her "method". She is always beautiful, but in her best work, she is magical too.

Garry McGee has done a commendable job researching and writing Jean's story. At 311 pages, it is satisfyingly dense, and much more than a perfunctory synopsis of her life and infamous death from suicide in 1979. In fact, it's so good you find yourself wishing a bigger publisher had picked it up so the illustrations could be top notch and the format larger.

But the content more than compensates for any graphic deficits. In fact, this book is really the quintessential tome on Seberg now, every bit as good as its predecessor on the subject, "Played Out- The Jean Seberg Story" by David Richard. If you're interested in Seberg, bet both. This one makes an excellent companion piece as it contains additional insights and illuminations, including rare interviews with Jean's sister Mary Ann, unique to this book!.

"Breathless" balances sensitivity with investigative journalism and the result is sure to please both scholars AND fans of the still-resonant star. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Jean Seberg Story
This is the sad story of Jean Seberg.She came from my hometown, Marshalltown, Iowa and became a hollywood star the year I was born - 1957.This book reads like a Greek tragedy as this bright and beautiful young woman from the Midwest is consumed by the movie industry.

Good book about a tragic actress...
I read "Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story" by David Richards many years ago and still can remember how well written it was.It chronicles the life of actress Jean Seberg, from her humble beginnings in Iowa through her life as an actress in Hollywood and France, and then her suicide in Paris from a barbituate overdose at the tragically young age of 41.The book paints Seberg not so much as an anti-establishment rebel as has been written of her so often in the past (although she was involved in the anti-vietnam peace movement), instead as a vulnerable, tragic young woman who was pushed into the abyss of mental illness by the bizarre actions of the FBI who listed her as a "subversive" due to her association with some members of the Black Panther Party in the early 1970's.It also tells of her film career (her films include Joan Of Arc, Paint Your Wagon and Airport), and also her 3 marriages. Most compelling is the story Author Richards tells of her slow downward spiral into depression, then madness.A must read for Jean Seberg fans. ... Read more

Product Description
Neutralized: the FBI vs Jean SebergThe Untold Story of a Disturbing Era in US History.The first detailed compilation of the FBI's campaign against international actress and champion of civil rights Jean Seberg. "Neutralized: the FBI vs. Jean Seberg" includes Seberg's released FBI file, interviews with family, friends, former FBI agents, those who played a part in the FBI's program, and the bureau's role in using the mass media to destroy Seberg's standing in the public's eyes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Jean Seberg
Not disappointed with the quality at all.... very well preserved, just hoping for more pictures of Jean in it... ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France. Seberg was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy (née Benson), a substitute teacher, and Edward Seberg, who was a druggist. Her family was Lutheran and of Swedish ancestry. Seberg studied at the University of Iowa. ... Read more

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Lilith had created her own world of utter sensuous ecstasy.She was the most exquisitely beautiful woman Vincent had ever seen.She revealed to him intensities of rapture unimaginable.And then, when he was irretrievably trapped in her silken web, she used his desire to force him to pander to the insatiable demands hidden at the core of her being. ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jean Seberg, Robert Trivers, Bunchy Carter, George Jackson, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Liste ehemaliger Mitglieder der Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale, Chaka Khan, COINTELPRO, Stokely Carmichael, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Fred Hampton, Richard Aoki, Geronimo Pratt, Bobby L. Rush, Malik Rahim,. Online finden Sie die kostenlose Aktualisierung der Bücher. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Mumia Abu-Jamal (* als Wesley Cook am 24. April 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) ist ein US-Amerikaner, der 1982 in Philadelphia wegen Mordes an einem Polizisten sowie wegen Schusswaffenbesitzes angeklagt, für schuldig befunden und zum Tode verurteilt wurde. Er befindet sich seitdem in Haft, seit 1995 im Hochsicherheitsgefängnis SCI-Greene bei Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Davor war er als Journalist, Politaktivist und zuletzt als Taxifahrer tätig. Die Tat- und Prozessumstände, in der Haft verfasste Artikel, Redebeiträge und Buchveröffentlichungen und ein weltweites Netzwerk von Unterstützern haben weltweit Aufsehen erregt. Abu-Jamals Anhänger und Verteidiger versuchen seine Freilassung zu erreichen, sind aber immer wieder damit gescheitert. Sie versuchen derzeit eine erneute Verhängung der Todesstrafe zu verhindern. Das Todesurteil selbst wurde am 27. März 2008 zunächst aufgehoben. Der Oberste Gerichtshof der Vereinigten Staaten bestätigte im weiteren Verlauf am 6. April 2009 den ursprünglichen Schuldspruch und verwies am 19. Januar 2010 das Verfahren an das Berufungsgericht zurück. Für den Fall der erneuten Verhängung der Todesstrafe hat der zuständige Gouverneur, der Demokrat Edward Rendell, klargemacht, dass er von seinem Gnadenrecht keineswegs Gebrauch machen wolle. Abu-J...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=161944 ... Read more

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : John Wayne, Andy Williams, Herbert Hoover, Kurt Warner, Linnea Quigley, Jean Seberg, Nat Pendleton, Norman Maclean, Donna Reed, Elijah Wood, Aldo Leopold, George Reeves, Glenn Miller, Ashton Kutcher, Lynn Reynolds, Norman Borlaug, Michelle Monaghan, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., Thomas Braden, Zach Johnson, John Hench, Wallace Hume Carothers, George Ryan, Geof Darrow, Sue Lyon, Jack Cunningham, Marlo Morgan, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Hill Harper, Tyler Black, Michael Talbott, Mamie Eisenhower, Cap Anson, Hope Emerson, Tom Leonard, Carl Van Vechten, Jon Koncak, Christian Clemenson, Frank J. Fletcher, Art Farmer, Grant Wood, Terry Farrell, Jay Berwanger, Jerry Mathers, Lucile Swan, Peggy Whitson, Louis Schalk, Laurel Clark, James M. Kelly, Henry Augustus Pilsbry, Eugene Ely, Philip J. Klass, Arthur Ward Lindsey, George D. Nelson, Martin Burns, Alan Heeger, Dan Goldie, Loren Shriver, David C. Hilmers, Darwyn Swalve, Edwin G. Krebs, Walter Cunningham, Adam Hart, Phil Morris, Clifford Roberts, Bob Barr, Gertrude Käsebier, Charles Osborne, Fran Allison, Rudolph Martin Anderson, Dave Keuning, Bernard Coyne, Lee Embree, Lou Henry Hoover, Carl Lotus Becker, Jack Bailey, Robert James Waller, Fred Grandy, Elmarie Wendel, Carl Magee. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : John Wayne, né Marion Robert Morrison le 26 mai 1907 à Winterset dans l'Iowa, aux États-Unis, et mort le 11 juin 1979 à Los Angeles (États-Unis), est un acteur, réalisateur et producteur américain. S'il a joué dans des films policiers, des films de guerre et quelques comédies romantiques, c'est dans ses nombreux westerns que John Wayne s'est réellement imposé, sous la direction de deux réalisateurs particulièrement : John Ford (La Chevauchée fantastique, Le Ma...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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Chapters: Dalida, Jean Seberg, Klaus Mann, Yves Navarre, Walter Hasenclever, Karen Lancaume, Arthur Adamov, Michèle Girardon, Pierre Batcheff. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 51. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Dalida (17 January 1933 3 May 1987) was an Italian Egyptian singer and actress, naturalised French. Dalida was born and raised in Egypt, but she lived most of her adult life in France. She received 55 gold records and was the first singer to receive a diamond disc. Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti was born in Shoubra, Cairo, Egypt in a middle-class family. Her family was of Italian origin, her parents having emigrated at the turn of the century from Calabria, Italy. The middle child between two brothers, Orlando and Bruno (who would later in Dalida's career change his name to Orlando like his other brother and become her manager). Dalidas father, Pietro Gigliotti, was first violinist (primo violino) at the Cairo Opera House. Dalidas early life was spent in the district of Shoubra, where she attended the Scuola Tecnica Commerciale Maria Ausiliatrice, an Italian Catholic school. In 1950, Dalida participated in the Miss Ondine beauty pageant and won the title, and shortly after began working as a model for Donna, a Cairo-based fashion house. In 1954, at the age of 20, Dalida competed in and won the Miss Egypt pageant, and was crowned Miss Egypt. It was here she was spotted by French director Marc de Gastyne, and, much to the reluctance of her parents, she moved to Paris on Christmas Eve of the same year with the intention of pursuing a career in motion pictures. It was about this time she adopted the name Dalila, which was shortly thereafter changed to the more familiar Dalida. Dalida performed and recorded in more than 10 languages including: French, Italian, Arabic, German, Spani...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=145584 ... Read more

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Chapters: Marilyn Monroe, Dana Plato, Charles Boyer, Hervé Villechaize, Tony Hancock, Dalida, Jean Seberg, Doodles Weaver, Soad Hosny, Margaux Hemingway, Chester Morris, Lou Tellegen, Richard Farnsworth, George Reeves, Inger Stevens, Maggie Mcnamara, Leslie Cheung, Florence Lawrence, Guru Dutt, Brian Keith, Gig Young, Karl Dane, Choi Jin Sil, Spalding Gray, George Sanders, Daisuke Gōri, Jerry Desmonde, Lupe Vélez, Dorothy Hale, Phyllis Hyman, Libby Holman, Jonathan Brandis, Pedro Armendáriz, Jane Arden, Peg Entwistle, Andrew Koenig, Carole Landis, Tom Graeff, Ed Flanders, Charles Rocket, Clara Blandick, Gary Vinson, Alan Lake, Li Tobler, Art Acord, Pete Duel, Barbara Bates, Lucy Gordon, Rachel Roberts, Stephen Haggard, Ernst Schröder, Marie Mcdonald, Barbara Yung, Richard Jeni, Brenda Benet, George Periolat, Capucine, Helen Twelvetrees, Joyce Jameson, Lester Cuneo, Jill Bennett, Grant Withers, Fred Herko, Max Linder, Barry Brown, U;nee, Mary Kay Bergman, Kenneth Halliwell, Elizabeth Hartman, David Rappaport, Walter Slezak, Mayo Methot, Jūzō Itami, Lois Hamilton, Imre Soós, Frank Wolff, Jang Ja-Yeon, Jason Raize, Ruan Lingyu, Pauline Chan, Evelyn Hoey, Michael Gothard, Michael Goodliffe, Justin Pierce, Diana Barrymore, Silk Smitha, Dorothy Abbott, Yukiko Okada, Micke Dubois, Will Rogers, Jr., Charles Avery, Ross Alexander, Valdemar Psilander, Philip Loeb, Bill Cody, Jr., Lee Eun-Ju, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Hugh O'connor, Keith Andes, Christine Pascal, Adele Blood, Everett Sloane, Nafisa Joseph, Miroslava Stern, Albert Salmi, Bob Grant, Dudu Topaz, Rick Jason, Mark Priestley, Benjamin Hendrickson, Shi Hui, Phyllis Haver, Rusty Hamer, Gia Scala, Ichikawa Danjūrō Viii, Scotty Beckett, Virginia Maskell, Edward Platt, Marvel Rea, Debbie Weems, Elizabeth Cooper, David Arkin, Imogen Hassall, Roland Harrah Iii, Patrick Dewaere, Richard Quine, Jeong Da-Bin, Sybille Schmitz, Johanna Sällström, Tom Forman, Sue Williams, Jorge Mistral, Juha...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=19318 ... Read more

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Chapters: John Wayne, Jean Seberg, Neville Brand, Marcia Wallace, Elijah Wood, Kate Mulgrew, George Reeves, Bobby Driscoll, Cloris Leachman, William Frawley, Ashton Kutcher, Brandon Routh, Margaret Lindsay, Donna Reed, Michael Emerson, Tom Arnold, Lara Flynn Boyle, Laura Leighton, Conrad Nagel, Ben Foster, Stephen Collins, Ashley Tesoro, Hill Harper, Chester Conklin, Julie Adams, Gregory Alan Williams, Ron Livingston, Don Defore, Sharon Farrell, Terry Farrell, Bill Daily, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Monaghan, Karen Morrow, David Yost, Harriet Nelson, Babe London, Charles Mcgraw, Hank Worden, Lori Petty, Wally Wingert, Mary Beth Peil, Matthew Ashford, Amy Leslie, Peggy Moran, Christian Clemenson, Dana Davis, Sue Lyon, Karen Morley, Phil Morris, Toby Huss, Richard Beymer, Jon Foster, Mary Beth Hurt, John Getz, Frank Keenan, Ann Morrison, Ruth Kobart, Nedra Volz, Gary Kroeger, Alex Ko, Paul Rust, Nat Pendleton, Lew Anderson, Michelle Vieth, Dennis O'keefe, Diane D'aquila, Constance Moore, Paul Ballantyne, Clem Beauchamp, Louise Carver, Phyllis Somerville, Stephen Stucker, Kiersten Warren, Claire Dodd, Elmarie Wendel, Robert Drouet, Raymond Mckee, James Ellison, Joan Freeman, Douglas Barr, Beth Marion, Selmer Jackson, Iris Meredith, Hope Emerson, Frank Lanning, Gordon Jones, Pierre Watkin, Beverley Owen, Will Walling, Bridget Flanery, David Anthony Higgins, Nathaniel David Becker, Romaine Fielding, Sarah Utterback, Michael Mosley, Marilyn Eastman, Billy Aaron Brown, Don Maclaughlin, Angela Dohrmann, Virgil Frye, Frank Jenks, Muriel Frances Dana. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 449. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Marion Mitchell Morrison (May 26, 1907 June 11, 1979), born Marion Robert Morrison and better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and produc...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=16103 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good biography of a fascinating woman
Jean Seberg was an original whose talent was unique.The role she's most remembered for is the neurotic young waif in BREATHLESS.From the time I first saw that movie in the late 1960s, I fell in love with her.After that she only made one more good movie, LILITH.Unfortunately, the movies she made after that were not that good.This biography tells about her life and helps shed light on why she committed suicide at the age of 40.She was the youngest of two sisters, and from the sketchy information about her childhood, it appears her older sister was her mother's favorite.I gather that both mother and older sister rejected young jean.At any rate she spend her life trying to get approval from people and trying to find herself.She was a rebel who supported the Black Panthers and lived in Paris, away from America (and her mother and sister).Toward the end she went crazy and was institutionalized again and again.Her life was s tragedy and this biography captures the highs and the lows.I recommend it if you want to find out more about this actress. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from American Scholar, published by Phi Beta Kappa Society on March 22, 2009. The length of the article is 2629 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The potency of Breathless: at 50, Godard's film still asks how something this bad can be so good.(Movies)(Jean-Luc Godard)(Movie review)
Author: Paula Marantz Cohen
Publication: American Scholar (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2009
Publisher: Phi Beta Kappa Society
Volume: 78Issue: 2Page: 110(5)

Article Type: Movie review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more