There are no castles, corsets, waves crashing against craggy cliffs. There is no sex, lust, or desire. The quiet, reserved, and extremely tender “Petite Maman”, is emotionally on the same level. They’re both about saying goodbyes from one angle.
This latest project, which lasts only 72 minutes, also features women and girlhood. Instead of a passionate relationship, this lens shows a whimsical idea of what it might look like for an 8 year old to spend time with her mom at age 8.
When it comes to portraying young girlhood, there are many traps and pitfalls. Films can romanticize, infantilize and instill uncongruously adult wisdom in young girls. Sweetness can become saccharine, and nostalgia can be a crutch. Sciamma can bring out the essential truths about what it’s like to live in that strange age, and the sometimes terrifying, sometimes beautiful vastness of an endless imagination. She even manages to do it without any background music that could manipulate our tear ducts.
Nelly (Josephine Sanz) is her heroine. She has just lost her grandmother. We meet her at the nursing home, where she is collecting her belongings with her mother Marion (Nina Meurisse). Nelly, like many 8-year old girls, is meticulous and respectful as she moves from room to room, biding farewell to fellow residents. Marion is distracted by grief, the overwhelming checklist that comes with the loss of a parent and Marion’s own emotions. Although she was ill, it wasn’t enough to make anyone forget to say their last goodbyes. This is what haunts Nelly. Her mother isn’t quite succeeding in convincing her to let her go on the long drive to her grandmother’s country house, where there will be more cleaning and clearing out.
Marion and Nelly arrive late at her childhood home with Nelly’s father, Stephane Varupenne. They discuss the terrifying shadows that still haunt Marion’s old bedroom window and then fall asleep on the couch together. Marion vanishes in the morning. It was too much for her. In this void, Nelly sets out to find the fort her mother built when she was her age. She meets a young girl named Gabrielle Sanz, who looks exactly like her. Nelly quickly becomes friends with her “small mom” and, though she is able to understand what is happening, Marion doesn’t know it for quite some time.
Gabrielle Sanz and Josephine Sanz are identical twins, which makes them a great casting choice. They are both naturals in front the camera. Their real life connection and similarities add warmth and eerieness to the minimal film. Although it’s possible that Marion was once an eerily similar image to Nelly, it lends credence to the notion that Nelly is imagining this film. She wants to get to know her mother more, including her fears, dreams, joys, and sadnesses. It’s the only way she knows how to do it.
Although “Petite Maman”, may seem short and simple, it has many layers that I believe will make the film more enjoyable on subsequent viewings. It is easily one of the most important films ever about mothers and their daughters.
It’s a difficult task to follow up a rapturously acclaimed period romance such as “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” but Sciamma is clearly up to it and is establishing her position as one of today’s most important and exciting filmmakers.
The Motion Picture Association of America has rated “Petite Maman”, a Neon release, PG for “some thematic elements” and “short smoking.” It runs for 72 minutes. Four stars out four.
