Tender is the Night

In this Sofia Coppola reimagining of Tender Is the Night, Dick and Nicole Diver are a glamorous American couple living on the French Riviera, where their sunlit villa becomes a center of expatriate social life. Their world begins to fracture when Rosemary Hoyt, a 17-year-old actress staying nearby with her mother, becomes infatuated with Dick and increasingly drawn into the Divers’ orbit. As Rosemary spends more time with them, she senses instability beneath their elegance. At a party, Violet McKisco claims to witness Nicole’s psychological breakdown in a bathroom, igniting tension among the guests and exposing the fragility of their social facade. The conflict escalates into a failed beach duel between Albert McKisco and Tommy Barban, after which the Riviera circle disperses and the illusion of effortless luxury collapses. In Paris, Rosemary reenters Dick and Nicole’s lives as both confidante and complication, blurring admiration with emotional entanglement. She attempts to seduce Dick, but he resists while confessing love for her, further destabilizing all three. The situation darkens when Jules Peterson is found murdered in Rosemary’s hotel room; Dick quietly moves the body to protect her reputation, binding himself to secrecy and accelerating his decline. The story then shifts into flashback: Dick, once a promising young psychiatrist in Zurich, meets Nicole Warren, a wealthy patient traumatized by her father’s abuse. Their professional bond becomes romance, and he marries her believing he can stabilize her through devotion. With Nicole’s wealth, he builds a practice, but gradually loses himself to dependence, alcoholism, and failure after professional and personal humiliations. Nicole emotionally withdraws and eventually begins an affair with Tommy Barban, leading to her divorce from Dick and remarriage, leaving him fully undone by the life he once tried to heal.

Story added by nickienicks on April 16, 2026