Portrait of a Lady on Fire took the international movie world by storm, a top 10 film in one of the better movie years of the last decade. The director, Celine Sciamma, had been building a strong resume for over a decade, culminating in that wonderful love story for the ages. So how does she follow that beautiful tale? With Petite Maman: a smaller, but equally powerful, love story, with just a hint of sweet sweet fantasy baby!
It’s a tough stretch for poor 8 year old Nelly (Josephine Sanz) and her mom (Nina Meurisse). Their grandma/mom just passed away, and they have to pack up grandma’s things to prepare to sell Nelly’s mom’s childhood home. While helping mom and dad (Stephane Varupenne) clean up the house, Nelly goes to play in the backyard, and meets Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), a girl about Nelly’s age, building a fort. The pair strike up a fast friendship, where Nelly is excited to meet Marion’s mom and see what her life is like before Nelly has to go back home.
Sciamma’s greatest trait is her gentle nature, which she puts on full display in Petite Maman. In a lesser melodrama, the movie would overplay the emotions of its character, having them constantly crying about the loss of a loved one. This movie wears the sadness in a much more complex, humane way. Nelly’s poor mother puts on a happy face, but she clearly has no energy to put on anything more than basic pleasant airs, preferring to wallow alone away from Nelly, and sometimes disappears for large chunks of the movie to cope silently. Nelly could have been this really cutesy kid traumatized at the beginning and then elated at the end she made a new friend. Instead, Sciamma and the wonderful Josephine Sanz make Nelly an inquisitive child, sad momentarily but, being a child, still more curious about what is going on than anything else. Nelly therefore understands by observing and asking simple pointed questions, deliberately and sweetly learning what she wants to learn and coming of age right before our eyes. Sciamma’s eye for natural personal growth gives Petite Maman that same power and resonance in Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Also, Sciamma has some really fascinating questions/observations for the audience to ponder. Like all kids, Nelly looks at her mother and wonders what she was like when she was younger. With Marion, Nelly gets a glimpse of another girl whose personality reminds her of her mother, and can ask all those questions Nelly’s mother isn’t prepared to answer right now. Sciamma immerses us in Nelly’s point of view, giving us a lens into all those questions we forgot we had as we got older: did our parents have hope and dreams too? What were they like as kids? How long does sadness last? Are people sad/happy because of me? Thank goodness the French understand that children possess a well of deep thoughts they are looking for answers to, and Sciamma’s movie treats Nelly’s pursuit of answers to those thoughts with the dignity and respect every child deserves in their quest for knowledge.
An hour and 12 minutes later, Petite Maman hugs us into the credits. Celine Sciamma’s delightful film feels like one of those wonderful naps you wake up from as a kid, fresh and ready to eat a bowl of cereal and discover something wonderful and new in the world. I look forward to Sciamma’s eventual movie about 50ish year old female relationships, to see what wealth of knowledge of the human condition the gifted writer/director can find for us in all walks of life.