New Film to Focus on Personal Side of American Movie Star and International Cinema Icon Jean Seberg
Moline, IL--A new documentary feature film about American-born screen actress Jean Seberg will focus on the private side of the Marshalltown, Iowa native as well as examining her very public American and international film career and civil rights era political activism.
Award-winning filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films will team with Iowa documentary filmmaker and writer Garry McGee. McGee, the author of Jean Seberg: Breathless, gathered exclusive on-camera interviews, vintage photographs, home movie footage, and other archival material from Seberg's family.
"They have routinely turned down interview requests over the years, including invitations from 20/20 and Mike Wallace," said producer Kelly Rundle. "Other documentaries have told a portion of Jean's story, but thanks to Garry's interviews and research this film will shed light on the person behind the celebrity."
Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg (the film's working title) is set for release by Fourth Wall Films in 2012.
"We are pleased to be working with Garry," said producer Tammy Rundle. "His insights into Jean's early years and family life will dispel some of the myths that cloud the reality of her life."
Born in Marshalltown, Iowa in November 13, 1938, Jean Seberg declared at an early age her intention to become a movie star. Director Otto Preminger plucked her from obscurity in a nation-wide search and cast her as Joan of Arc in Saint Joan.
While her early American films were poorly received, Seberg created a successful European film career where she is best known as the star of Jean-Luc Godard's ground-breaking French New Wave film Breathless (À bout de souffle).
"Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg will contain the first and only interview with Jean's sister Mary Ann, her high school drama coach Carol Hollingsworth, former Marshalltown Times-Republican editor Warren Robeson, and childhood best friend Lynda Haupert," said producer Garry McGee.
Additional interviews from France include co-star Mylène Demongeot, producer Marc Simenon, director Nicolas Gessner, and Jean's first husband François Moreuil.
The documentary will examine Jean's beginnings in small-town Iowa, her career ups and downs, her marriages, and her ongoing humanitarian and social justice efforts. Seberg was both acclaimed international actress (Lilith, Dead of Summer) and popular American star (Paint Your Wagon, Airport).
Her impressive list of American movie co-stars includes Sir John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, Joanne Woodward, Deborah Kerr, and Ella Fitzgerald. In Europe she shared the screen with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Maurice Ronet, Michel Piccoli, Isabelle Huppert, Micheline Presle, and Danielle Darrieux.
In the midst of the turbulent civil rights era in America, Jean's political activism caught the attention of J. Edgar Hoover. When the F.B.I. attempted to discredit her by planting a false story about her pregnancy in national publications, Jean became so distraught that her baby was born prematurely and died.
Changed by the tragedy, she began a downward spiral that led to her untimely death in 1979 in Paris at the age of 40. Ruled a probable suicide by French authorities, questions linger among her close friends regarding the possibility of foul play.
The Rundles have previously produced Lost Nation: The Ioway and Villisca: Living with a Mystery. They are currently in production on Country School: One Room - One Nation.
Garry McGee previously co-produced The Last Wright, a documentary about the last remaining Frank Lloyd Wright hotel in Mason City, Iowa. In addition to Jean Seberg: Breathless, he is also the co-author of Neutralized: The F.B.I. vs Jean Seberg, Doris Day: Sentimental Journey, and other entertainment-related titles.
Fourth Wall Films, a film and video production company owned by Kelly and Tammy Rundle, was formerly located in Los Angeles, California. The husband and wife duo is now based in Moline, Illinois where they focus on Midwestern historical documentaries.
For more information, visit http://www.fourthwallfilms.com/.
Contributions are welcome. Visit our contribution page at:
http://docublogger.typepad.com/seberg/how-to-contribute.html
Larger tax-deductible contributions can be made through our fiscal sponsor the Historical Society of Marshall County.
Contact us at FourthWallFilms@aol.com for more details.
Partial Filmography (Jean starred in 37 films):
Saint Joan (1957)
Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
The Mouse that Roared (1959)
À bout de souffle (Breathless) (1960)
Lilith (1964)
Moment to Moment (1965)
Paint Your Wagon (1969)
Airport (1970)
More American Co-Stars:
Burt Lancaster
Kirk Douglas
Roy Scheider
Peter Sellers
David Niven
Burl Ives
Honor Blackman
Richard Widmark
Peter Fonda
Kim Hunter
George Peppard
Lee Marvin
Ray Walston
Dean Martin
Maureen Stapleton
Helen Hayes
Jacqueline Bisset
David Jannsen
Diane Ladd
More European Co-Stars:
Christian Marquand
Elsa Martinelli
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Phillipe Noiret
Nico
Jean-Pierre Cassel
Ugo Tognazzi
Fabio Testi
Marisol
Bruno Ganz
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