Since early summer the word on Amazon’s Seberg (formerly Against All Enemies) has been that Kristen Stewart‘s performance as the tragic Jean Seberg is quite the standout and actually better than the film itself. Stewart’s performance is “extremely understated and internal,” I was told last May. “She never goes too big and plays her cards with acute subtlety.” The film was directed by Benedict Andrews from a screenplay by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse.

From Seberg’s Wikipage: “In 1970 the FBI created a false story, from a San Francisco-based informant, that the child Seberg was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary but by Raymond Hewitt, a member of the Black Panther Party. The story was reported by gossip columnist Joyce Haber of the Los Angeles Times, and was also printed by Newsweek magazine. Seberg went into premature labor and, on August 23, 1970, gave birth to a 4 lb (1.8 kg) baby girl. The child died two days later. Seberge held a funeral in her hometown with an open casket that allowed reporters to see the infant’s white skin, which disproved the rumors.

“Seberg and Gary later sued Newsweek for libel and defamation, asking for $200,000 in damages. She contended she became so upset after reading the story, that she went into premature labor, which resulted in the death of her daughter. A Paris court ordered Newsweek to pay the couple US$10,800 in damages and ordered Newsweek to print the judgment in their publication, plus eight other newspapers.”