‘Petite Maman’ Film Review: Céline Sciamma Weaves a Delicate Tale of Mothers and Daughters
Berlin 2021: There’s a haunting, novella-like quality to the director’s follow-up to “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”Alonso Duralde | March 4, 2021 @ 3:13 PM Last Updated: March 5, 2021 @ 9:17 AM
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Anyone expecting another sweeping and passionate period piece from the director of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” should begin recalibrating their expectations for Céline Sciamma’s follow-up, “Petite Maman.”
Intimately focused on a handful of characters, with a single fantastical event setting up its direct narrative through-line, this feature plays like a novella, or a short film, or both it’s the kind of piece that was once the bread-and-butter of PBS’ “American Playhouse” anthology series. And while “Petite Maman” is a vastly different from than “Portrait,” it furthers writer-director Sciamma’s reputation as a storyteller with a keen
Neon Nabs Celine Sciamma s French Drama Petite Maman After Berlin Debut
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Neon has acquired North American rights to Céline Sciamma’s latest feature, “Petite Maman,” following its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
The sale reunites Sciamma with Neon, the New York-based independent studio that released her acclaimed drama “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”
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Written and directed by Sciamma, “Petite Maman” follows 8-year-old Nelly, who loses her beloved grandmother and goes to help her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. She explores the house and the surrounding woods where her mom, Marion, used to play and build the treehouse she’s heard so much about. One day, her mother abruptly leaves. That’s when Nelly meets a girl her own age in the woods building a treehouse. Her name is Marion.
A beautiful and mysterious excursion into child s play.
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Céline Sciamma follows her international art-house breakthrough, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with this study of an 8-year-old girl who finds a unique path to better understanding her mother in the wake of loss.
There s a gorgeous scene early in
Petite Maman that epitomizes the unfussy economy and emotional perceptiveness of Céline Sciamma s films. Watching intently from the back seat of the family car as her mother climbs in, stifling tears, and they head off to begin packing up the home of the maternal grandmother who has recently died, the film s 8-year-old protagonist asks permission to break out the snacks. Seldom taking her eyes off her mother in the rear vision mirror, the girl snarfs down a few cheese crisps before the frame closes in on her parent at the wheel.