2021 Directed by Céline Sciamma
Eight-year-old Nelly has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. She explores the house and the surrounding woods where her mother used to play and where she built the treehouse Nelly has heard so much about. One day her mother suddenly leaves. That is when Nelly meets a girl of her own age in the woods, building a treehouse.
Little Mom, Küçük Anne, เจ้าหญิงน้อย, Lille mamma, Pequena Mamãe, Mala mama, Maminka, Väike emme, Maja lapsuuden reunalla, Μικρή μαμά, 童心奇緣, Imma Ktana, Mała mama, Petite Maman - Als wir Kinder waren, Μικρή Μαμά, Pepite Maman, Pequeña Mamá, אימא קטנה, 秘密の森の、その向こう, 쁘띠 마망, Mažytė mama, Маленькая мама, Lilla mamma, Маленька мама, 小妈妈, 迷你孖媽, 親愛的童伴
Really want to give everyone in this movie a hug and then go give my mom a hug
there is a sadness traded off between children & parents that’s rooted in wanting to see the other happy. it’s like that line from 20th century women, “you get to see him out in the world as a person. i never will”. just as our parents never get to see us as human beings separate from them, we never get to see them that freely either. and so sadness exists as a thing that both creates distance & binds you. petite maman feels like closing that gap. erasing the mystery or fear in the back of one’s mind that the cause of someone’s sadness stems from you.
a vanilla pudding movie; wish it lasted longer, sweet and soft while it’s there, makes me go “gotta check out the rest of pudding’s work”
Lovely. Sciamma's so so good at tender and soft storytelling with meditative pacing. Feels like a dream or a memory more than a magical story; a fairytale where the most fantastical elements are just familiar, sweet little quirks of childhood. Just wonderful! Made me smile a lot. Also made me really want a kid. Gettin' my girl pregnant tonight! EDIT: never mind she saw this
AFI 2021: film #6
“you didn’t invent my sadness”
celine is so incredibly good at naturally fitting emotion into such a neat and minimalist package, and the catharsis in experiencing what she’s made is like unwrapping a present from someone who loves you. yes it’s super cute and sweet just like i anticipated but really resonated with me in a deeper way. i can already feel my love for this blooming inside my chest
"You didn't invent my sadness."
There is no such thing as a small story or small people when your heart is this big. I truly can't remember the last time I saw something that feels as special – in terms of operating with a very specific very unique kind of magic that nothing and nobody else has ever had – as this in such a long time.
Eight-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) sits in the backseat of her mother’s car outside of the nursing home where her beloved grandmother has just died, and watches through the window as her young parents (Nina Meurisse and Stéphane Varupenne) share a tender embrace. The half-quizzical look on Nelly’s face suggests that she hasn’t seen them hug in a while — that perhaps this moment is doubly charged. She wonders what they mean to each other, and what it feels like to lose someone forever, and whether her mother ever sat alone in a car on a gray fall afternoon and watched as her mother was consoled over her mother’s death. Nelly understands that her mom didn’t become 31 without being eight…
Céline Sciamma does more in 72 minutes than most directors do in three hours. PETITE MAMAN is a compact, intimate tale about processing grief and abandonment that totally captivated me. Great, naturalistic child performances. By far the best movie I’ve seen at Telluride.
