Petite Maman (2021) or, Girl Fantasy Lullaby

1/24/2022

Petite Maman (2021) or, Girl Fantasy Lullaby

♥♥

A childlike landscape painting in the shape of a heart is intermingled with the two central girl actors on this bright poster for Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman

A little girl is helping her mother out after the passing of her maternal grandmother, removing furniture and belongings from her house. The girl befriends a very similar girl in the forest by the house, and she soon discovers something very strange about the girl.

Petite Maman is written and directed by great French filmmaker Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies/Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)). The title translates to, 'little mum'.

It is an extremely calm, meditative and quiet film, which only uses music once towards the ending. The calmness surrounds a plot that seems to be mesmeric to some, while it was regrettably soporific to me. The characters have little concrete characteristics; they are more so kind of art movie 'universal mother', 'universal father' and 'universal daughter' in 'mythical forest house'. Mother and daughter are quietly grieving someone we haven't seen or met, SPOILER and then the daughter befriends a girl who looks like her twin, (they are played by real life siblings Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz) and who turns out, strangely, to be her own mother when she was her age.

Spellbound or lulled to a lethargic state of relaxation, many will claim the first due to Sciamma's politically correct credentials, (woman-centered lesbian art cinema.) But in the case of Petite Maman, the hype is wrong; the film is but a pretty and snoozy mind game.

Céline Sciamma: Portrait of a Lady on Fire/Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (2019) - Sciamma spoils us with picturesque period romance

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.8 mil. €, approximately 3.18 mil. $

Box office: 1 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Petite Maman was released 2 June (France) and runs 72 minutes. Shooting took place in France. The film has been screened at numerous film festivals. It is set to release in Germany and Poland in February and March. So far the film looks to theatrically become a huge flop or even a mega-flop. Naturally its performance is heavily influenced and hindered by the China Virus pandemic. Sciamma does not have her next project announced yet. Petite Maman is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Petite Maman?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

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1/24/2022

Petite Maman (2021) or, Girl Fantasy Lullaby

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