[spectre] Remember Jean Seberg

[Aliette Guibert]

ON JEAN SEBERG'S DEATH


     Jean Seberg was always much more an icon than an actress. From her
disastrous appearance in the role title of the "Jeanne d'Arc" by Preminger
( 1958 ), to the beatification of her face by Godard in "A bout de souffle",
the cult film of the French "New wave"; of its status of expert of the
fashion in the 1960s, in her perischolar work with the Black Panthers,
actress's career of Seberg was always in the shade of her cultural presence.
Her participation as actress in prestigious productions as "Bonjour
tristesse", in the films of her different husbands or big successes as
"Airport" were not able to change the public perception of Seberg as a
beautiful doll, a little disturbed girl on whom the men - Preminger, Godard,
Roman Gary, Black Panthers - poured their often misogynous obsessions.
    In the utopia of the sixties, three representative actress embodied the
critical commitment of the women in the politics and the big stakes in their
time: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave and Jean Seberg. But yes, in spite of her
commitment against the war of Vietnam, Fonda was protected by the
illustrious name of her father engaging part of the history of the United
States, and by her status of autonomous woman beyong the Star, and then
fantastically wealthy; Redgrave's tribute to the Liberation of Palestine
Organization got melted as snow in the sun the working propositions which
were made for her. And Seberg? She was relentlessly harassed and chased by
FBI until the ultimate defamation concerning the paternity by Romain Gary of
her second child.

All was too much for her, she died from it. How? Why?


    A spirit rebels which interests more FBI
    than Hollywood studios

    Jean Seberg would have been doubtless able to become an inescapable
actress but she did not seem to be particularly interested in the cinema.
She looked something stronger and found it in the life but not on the
screen. She felt some fascination for the heroes of the second world war in
particular André Malraux, for whom she had a weak young, and Roman Gary,
whom she married. Her refusal of the injustice led her to make a commitment
in fights with racial minorities, bringing help and fund in Indians and in
American black revolutionary movement of the Black Panthers. She was
followed then closely by FBI spinnings, put on phone-tapping, attempts of
intimidation and deciding to destabilize her by organizing a slanderous
press campaign: the father of his second child would not be Romain Gary as
she said, but be one of the leaders of the Black Panthers. This resentful
and deceitful campaign opened a so deep wound as the actress never recovered
from it. She gave birth to a stillborn child whom she made carry in earth in
a glass coffin, so that the world press could see that the skin of the child
was white as a proof of his father.
    Nobody paid attention on her calling for help on August 29th, 1979 when
she
phoned to close relations saying them, terrified, that she was
caught in the biggest network of drug of North Africa and that it was
necessary to come at once to help her, because she could be killed at any
time. Everybody thought of a new frenzy of the actress. A grave error.
    The next day, Ahmed Hasni, Jean Seberg's last husband, declared to the
commissionership that she had left her place of residence of the XVIth
district of Paris, bare, with a tartan rug and a bottle of water. This day,
in a district nevertheless well watched, nobody appeared to have noticed
her.
    Ten days later, one found Jean Seberg's body on the back seat of her
car, hidden under a tartan rug. According to the results of autopsy the
actress was 8 grams of alcohol in the blood. Such a dose which can be gulped
down, the alcohol was able only to be injected in intravenous injection. A
very mysterious death.
    We know that Jean Seberg, beaten by Hasni had already run away and
tried several times to commit suicide. But the numerous doubtful associates
of the actress who sometimes came receiving blackmail to take away to her
any money, the officials whom she hampered even irritated, and the last cry
for help which stated drug traffickers support the thesis of the murder.
    Two days later, her ex-husband Roman Gary gave a press conference in
Paris during which he accused officially FBI of murder...

The reality of the facts stays today: this free woman will have faced with
courage the big social stakes and the politics of her actual time.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -


"The death of Jean Seberg" is an inquiry led and written by Simon Guibert
as author of the broadcast issue realized by Yvon Croizier
US and French archives and new interviewes
on the radio FRANCE CULTURE, " The Heart of the matter " a serial proposed
by
Alexandre Heraud

"The death of Jean Seberg"

Broadcast on Tuesday, July 6th, 2004 of 15hrs in 16hrs 30
Repeat broadcast on Saturdays of 23 hrs in 24hrs 30
Available on radiofrance site, same day and at the time (more later) of the
hertzian
broadcast :
http://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-culture2/emissions/vifdusujet/