Petite Maman

Director: Celine Sciamma 

29 May 2023

See

Him: Nelly (Hosephine Sanz) a little girl in the French countryside is helping her parents clean out her deceased grandmother’s home. Playing in the woods, where her mother once did, she meets Marion (Gabrielle Sanz).

Her: Petite Maman by Celine Skiamma, a French fantasy film about a 9 year old Nelly travelling with her mother to clean out her grandmothers house after her passing. One day she goes for a walk in the woods where she meets a girl of her age called Marion, building a fort. Over a course of days the two spend all their time together, and at some point Nelly realises that Marion is her mother as a little girl. 

Think

Him: The realisation that Marion is her mother as a child is revealed delicately, and their interactions are sincere. Not just building a shelter, but cooking together, and rehearsing a play, before Marion has a surgery scheduled. 

Her: a film as a therapy session. An opportunity that everyone of us wish they had when trying to resolve unresolved child traumas and understand their parent better. 

Feel

What was wong with Nelly’s mother isn’t revealed. But I liked when she asked her father for more stories. Real ones. This film was short and cute, but I didn’t feel it like Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Her: while short, sweet and not really representing  any particular intense dramatic moments on screen, this movie is emotionally loaded - from the moment mother goes away to the moment Nelly realised that Marion is her mother and then revealing this truth to her. The female gaze Sciamma is advocating for is represented very subtly and makes her idea of feminism way more appealing than any others I’ve encountered before.