Petite Maman (2021)

Celine Sciamma follows up her world beating Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019) with another gorgeous and poignant tale of eight year old Nelly, who is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home shortly after her grandmother’s death. Petite Maman is only seventy minutes long; Sciamma is a magnificent example of a director telling her story exactly as she wants, and only using the time she needs. Of course this is helped by the fact that it’s a Mubi release, this is not something she’d be afforded by many studios. “What would Miyazaki do?” is supposedly one of Sciamma’s mantras, and you can see the influence of Ghibli on her work, certainly most notably in this heartbreaking yet beautiful fairy-tale of an eight year old girl, dealing with circumstances way beyond her age. It’s worth noting that Clare Mathon is once again on cinematography duties once more for Sciamma (she also shot Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) because the film looks absolutely stunning. The way the woods outside the house are shot draws you into a children’s world entirely, making you believe that anything is possible. Despite dealing with perhaps more serious subject matter, I found myself being reminded of both Kings Of Summer (2013) and Son Of Rambow (2007) although more pertinently it took me back to Etre et avoir (2002) Nicolas Philibert’s magnificent docu-film of a tiny school in rural France. The trials and tribulations of the children in the school came back to me in spades as Nelly worries that she didn’t say goodbye to her grandmother before she passed. The performances from the twins (Gabrielle and Josephine Sanz) are nothing short of remarkable, the authenticity of their portrayals completely captivating. Mathon’s cinematography combined with Sciamma’s film making and her increasingly brilliant casting choices mean that this is one of 2021'a finest, as well as it confirming Sciamma as one of the best Directors in cinema today. 8.3/10