Jean Seberg, Otto Preminger’s unforgettable Joan of Arc and icon of the New Wave whose boyish cut in À breathless remains in all memories, lived a tumultuous life in parallel. But his thwarted or passionate love affairs gave way to deep torment over time. They end in 1979, with his death at the age of 40. His end of life with dark and glaucous accents contrasts with the luminous face of his films.
American actress Jean Seberg went missing on August 30, 1979. Her last companion, a mobster named Ahmed Hasni who swindled and beat her, claims that she left her Paris apartment, naked under her coat, with only luggage a bottle of water. His body was found ten days later by the police, wrapped in a blanket in the back of his white Renault in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The Express specifies that his body was half decomposed and rolled into a ball.
In her hand, a letter to her son Alexandre Diego, born of her past union with the author of The promise of dawn, Romain Gary. The latter will commit suicide a few months later, in 1980, leaving as words “no relation to Jean Seberg“. The autopsy report indicated that Jean Seberg succumbed to a massive overdose of barbiturates but also alcohol. The police investigation concluded that he had committed suicide, a thesis still today in question.
The last years of Jean Seberg were indeed not lacking in controversy and scandal. Her relationship with Hakim Jamal, cousin of Malcom X and close to the Black Panthers, put her on the FBI watch list. He spread false rumors about her to discredit her, according to which the father of the child she was expecting is that of a black man. After attempting suicide during this period, the actress gave birth prematurely to a daughter, Nina, who died two days later. She buried her in a transparent coffin to prove that the child was indeed white. Following this scandal, Jean Seberg then sank into depression, becoming dependent on alcohol and drugs. Several times hospitalized and interned, she was the victim of attacks of dementia and again tried to commit suicide, most often on the anniversary dates of the loss of her daughter.