Petite Maman Petite Maman

* * * * PG, 2021, Drama, 1h 12m

Nelly has just lost her grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother's childhood home. She explores the house and the surrounding woods. One day she meets a girl her same age building a treehouse.

C©line Sciamma continues to prove herself as one of the most accomplished and unpredictable contemporary French filmmakers with her follow up to PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, the uniquely emotional, PETITE MAMAN.

Following the death of her beloved grandmother, 8-year-old Nelly accompanies her parents to her mother's childhood home to begin the difficult process of cleaning out its contents.

As Nelly explores the house and nearby woods, she is immediately drawn to a neighbor her own age building a treehouse. What follows is a tender tale of childhood grief, memory and connection.

Release date: 5 May 2022 (Australia)

Official Trailer

97% TOMATOMETER
81% AUDIENCE SCORE

Review

Review by JAKE WILSON | TheAge

Until now, the characters in Celine Sciamma's films seemed to be growing up. Her 18th century queer romance, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, was her first film centred on adults rather than children or adolescents. It was also her biggest hit, tempting critics to suppose that Sciamma herself had " come of age' ' as a filmmaker .

Her follow-up , Petite Maman, complicates the picture. At eight years old, Nelly (Josephine Sanz) is Sciamma's youngest heroine - and while this may not be primarily a film for children, it's certainly one that viewers of all ages can enjoy. Even the running time has been miniaturised: less than an hour and a quarter.

Yet artistically, the film is anything but a backwards step. It feels like the work of an explorer, which is also what Nelly becomes while staying at a house in the country, the home of her maternal grandmother who has just died.

The small cast of characters also includes Nelly's parents: her grieving mother (Nina Meurisse), who heads back to the city early in the story, and her youthful, easygoing father (Stephane Varupenne), who's left with the task of packing up the house.

Left to her own devices, Nelly ventures into the woods where she meets Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), a girl her own age living nearby.

The two look remarkably alike - as well they might, considering that they're played by twin sisters.

Though the plot of Petite Maman is not outwardly complicated, it would be a mistake to reveal much more. What can be said is that the film is conceived as both a children's game and an uncanny ritual, extending the tradition represented in French cinema by Jacques Rivette and, before him, Jean Cocteau (clear influences on Portrait of a Lady on Fire, as well).

For the most part, what Nelly and Marion get up to together is just what you might expect, though charged with as much meaning as you care to find . They exchange secrets; they write and enact a play, dressing up as different characters; they make pancakes (milk is an especially vital substance here, no less than in Kelly Reichardt's First Cow).

Innocent as it all sounds, Sciamma is not interested in cuteness: this pair is taken as seriously as any of her earlier characters, regardless of age. Much of the time, the game involves them addressing each other solemnly, as if a certain formal distance were necessary for the magic spell.

But there are also moments when they loosen up, the camera moves in closer, and we seem to be privy to a conspiracy between Sciamma and the actual children playing these roles - which is also magical, in a different way.

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