Like most fans of international cinema, I was absolutely bowled over by the beauty and raw emotional power of director Celine Sciamma's heart-wrenching love story, “Portrait of a Woman on Fire” which was released in 2019. The film is an out and out masterpiece, and in any other year it would have taken out the top spot of my “Top Twenty Films of the Year” list, but 2019 was a special year in film, and it only came in at number three. No matter where it placed, my opinion holds true that the film is a masterpiece, and as such I was eagerly anticipating whatever Sciamma came out with next (not to mention to catch up with the films that she had made previous). She has now returned with the smaller and much more intimate family drama “Petite Maman”.
Eight year old Nelly has just lost her grandmother, and together with her mother and father, she is helping in the packing up of the old woman's house. Being back in her childhood home, Nelly's mother is overcome with emotion and finds the task increasingly difficult. Nelly chooses to explore the woods that back on to her grandmother's property, the location of many of her mother's childhood stories. Whilst playing in the woods, she happens to come across another young girl building a hut amongst the trees. The two girls exchange pleasantries before Nelly returns home fearing her parents would be worried. She spends the night talking to her mum who is reminiscing about her childhood, thanks to the many memories flooding within her. When Nelly wakes, her mother is gone. The memories were too much, leaving just Nelly and her father to finish the job. Nelly heads out into the woods and meets the other girl again. They are both the same age, and quickly become friends. However with Nelly only being in the area a short time to clean out her grandmother's home, it can only be a brief friendship, so the two girls make the most of every minute that they have together.
Whilst Celine Sciamma is working on a much smaller canvas here than she did on “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”, she has once again struck gold with “Petite Maman”. It is such a beautiful and gentle little film that deals with memory, saying goodbye to loved ones, and moving on with life while never forgetting how much that person meant to you whilst they were alive. I absolutely loved this film, so much so that I have already seen it twice. The film opens with a lovely scene of Nelly going around saying goodbye to all the other elderly women that were in the same nursing home her grandmother was in. The scene has further poignance later on in the film when we learn that Nelly is upset that she didn't say goodbye properly to her grandmother before she passed. Her mother tells her that she always said goodbye, but Nelly said that if she knew it would be the last time, she would have made it more meaningful.
With “Petite Maman” Sciamma is returning to themes she has explored in earlier films but the two girls, Nelly and Marion, are her youngest protagonists yet. The girls are played by twin sisters, Josephine and Gabrielle Sanz, and they are just outstanding. Sciamma has always been able to get impressive performances out of children in her past films, but the Sanz girls are in a whole other class. They both come across so natural, believable and so full of life. I also defy anyone to not have their heart melt when the two girls giggle infectiously whilst playing together or making pancakes. Josephine Sanz has the larger role playing Nelly, and as such also has to display a larger gamut of emotions, but I cannot remember a scene where it feels like she makes a false step once. Smartly, Sciamma in her role of costume designer has colour coded the girls, with Nelly mostly dressed in shades of blue and Marion in red, so although both girls look very similar, we are never confused as to who is who.
Speaking of colour, “Petite Maman” has been shot in gorgeous autumn colours. The film is filled with gold, yellow, browns and oranges. Whilst you would assume that these colours would only exist out in the woods, the colours inside the grandmother's house mirror those that are outside. The use of autumn is not just an aesthetic choice either, as the season is very symbolic for change, which is something all of the characters are going through here. Sciamma has re-teamed with her “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” cinematographer Claire Mathon for “Petite Maman”, and like that earlier film, Mathon has used very soft lighting whilst capturing her gorgeous images. Something I have noticed while going through Celine Sciamma's earlier films is that she has a distinct set of themes that she often tackles, usually adolescent themes, but it was not until her collaboration with Claire Mathon that she really exploded in a more artistic sense. Content wise, all of her films have a uniformity to them, but with both “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and now “Petite Maman”, her films now have an extreme visual beauty to them too.
When I went into “Petite Maman” the first time, I was expecting a gentle drama, with a particular focus on the little girl. However I was blown away when a very special twist in the story is revealed to the audience. I just was not expecting it at all, but I had the biggest smile on my face when it came to light, and even more so when the twist works so well throughout the rest of the film. I have been fighting with myself over whether or not to reveal the twist in this review, because in doing so it opens up so much more of what I can talk about in regards to the film. However after much consideration, I have decided that I will not say anything about it at all other than to say that it is a lovely example of “magic realism” within cinema. I also loved the fact that one of the girls actually understands what is going on and how the story evolves because of this.
This obviously now leaves me with less to say about “Petite Maman”, but it is a film that has been expertly put together. The production design of the house is particularly well done because it is memorable without being showy. Things like the style of wallpaper that exists behind a cupboard (as the parents amusingly painted around said cupboard when they painted the wall), or the blue tiled bathroom, all implant in our memory without bombarding our senses. Music doesn't play a big part in the film, but the moment Sciamma finally lets it takeover is yet another sublime moment from this super talented director. Whilst the moment isn't quite as memorable as the campfire scene on the beach in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”, it isn't far off from it.
While “Petite Maman” may look from the outside a gentle drama, thanks to the light touch Sciamma uses in telling her story, there is a sadness and sense of melancholy that permeates the whole thing. Not one person cries in the film, but the heaviness that the death of a loved one brings is always present. There are also moments during the film when Nelly is talking to Marion that add to that sadness. For example, there is a hint that Nelly's mother may actually suffer from depression (Nelly being a child and not fully understanding the illness, feels she may be the reason behind it), or when Nelly starts to think that having her, cost her mother her dream of becoming an actress. I should stress, this is not a sad movie, and you will likely leave the film with your heart bursting with a form of happiness, but like reality, that doesn't mean that a sadness doesn't exist at the same time. There are no villains in this film, no one is horrible to anyone else, in fact all we see is love expressed to all of the characters; sometimes life can be hard, and that is okay.
Finally, I just want to mention the ending of the film which, similar to the opening, is just lovely. It ends on Nelly's mother's beaming smile for her daughter which just feels so perfect in the context of the whole film.
Overall, I went into “Petite Maman” expecting a small, but beautiful drama about childhood, but I ended up getting so much more, and was pleasantly surprised by the film's twist. Director Celine Sciamma has returned to the smaller canvas of her earlier films and to the adolescent themes within them, but has created an exquisite and heart warming film that sits wonderfully next to her masterpiece, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”. The twin girls who play the lead roles of Nelly and Marion are outstanding, and oh so bloody cute too (but not in an annoying way). There is so much more that I would love to say about this brilliant film, but without ruining the surprise for others, I cannot, so I will just say that I absolutely adore this film. I believe that Celine Sciamma (together with cinematographer Claire Mathon) is a director currently working at the top of her game, and once again, I cannot wait to see what she has in store for us next. Yes, “Petite Maman” is a little film, but it is packed full of emotion and humanity, that I hope anyone who gets a chance to see it, does so.
4 Stars.
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