Petite Maman (2021) or, Girl Fantasy Lullaby

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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.

Related post:

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?

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

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+ Best Blockbuster of the Year (2,797.3 mil. $ gross) + Best Superhero Movie of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 761.9
mil. $ range+ Best LBGT Movie of the Year + Romance of the Year 

Star Adèle Haenel has caught fire on this poster for Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A soon to be married aristocrat lady spends a period at a reclusive seaside house, where a talented female painter is tasked with making her portrait. The two reach a profound connection in those precious days.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is written and directed by great French filmmaker Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies/Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)). Sciamma presents another very woman-centered tale with a subtle feminist current running through it, this time especially evident in a scene of the painter's placement at an art opening, where she has been used to paint a 'master' artist's paintings but naturally without any credit given.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a picturesque (cinematography by Claire Mathon (Atlantics/Atlantique (2019))) and delicious treat, a sort of lesbian counterpart to the short-term romance gay 'guilty pleasure' of recently, Luca Guadagnino's great Call My By Your Name (2017). - Short and sweet, turning to bittersweet and tears, as the passion it describes becomes but a burning memory.
The attraction is subdued and confined to looks and dialog for the majority of the film, which undoubtedly leaves some audiences a bit restless, before the genie is let out of its lamp so to speak. Then it is still much less explicit than many other recent romances, but plenty sensual, deftly utilizing the looks, the sounds of the surf and smoldering fire to render the heightened sense of existence such powerful feelings of love and desire provoke.
The title seems to work on two planes, as Adèle Haenel's (Ogres/Les Ogres (2015)) aristocrat subject literally catches fire at a beach-set bonfire scene one evening in the film, but also poetically seems to have her soul set afire by the sudden storm of love that she experiences with the other. Haenel and Noémie Merlant (The Brother (2016)) are both outstanding in the film.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a near-perfect portrayal of the rush, redemption and pain of finding love and losing it.

 

Related post:

 

2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4 mil. €, approximately 4.45 mil. $
Box office: 9.7 mil. $ and counting
= Flop (has returned 2.17 times its cost so far)
[Portrait of a Lady on Fire premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place from October - December 2018 in France. The film opened #39 to a 67k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 334 theaters and grossed 3.7 mil. $ (28.1 % of the total gross). Its release was disrupted dramatically by the corona pandemic. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been France with 2.3 mil. $ (23.7 %) and South Korea with 1 mil. $ (10.3 %). The film was shortlisted as France's submission for the Oscars but wasn't ultimately chosen. It was nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, won 2 awards in Cannes, 1/10 César award nominations, 1/3 European Film award nominations, nominated for an Independent Spirit award and won a National Board of Review award. IMDb's users have voted the film in at the site's Top 250 at #232, sitting between La Haine (1995) and It Happened One Night (1954). Sciamma has not announced her next project yet. Haenel has also not announced her next project yet; Merlant returned in Shakira (2019, short) and theatrically in Jumbo (2020). Portrait of a Lady on Fire is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.01/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Portrait of a Lady on Fire?