Petite Maman (2021) Movie Review
Petite Maman was written and directed by one of my favorite filmmakers working right now, Céline Sciamma. You might recognize Sciamma’s name from her 2019 tour de force, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. If you haven’t seen that masterpiece, you should really stop reading and go watch it. Petite Maman is an incredibly different film from her previous one, but told under the creative vision of Sciamma it takes on a life of its own.
Nelly (Josephine Sanz) is an eight year old who has just lost her grandmother. While her parents are busy cleaning out her mother’s childhood home, Nelly spends her time playing in the woods. In the woods she meets a young girl Marion (Gabrielle Sanz) who is busy building a treehouse. Nelly helps her and as only children can do, they become friends easily. When Marion invites Nelly back to her house to play, some strange things occur. The house is a mirror image of Nelly’s grandmother’s house. There are spoilers ahead so quit reading if you want to be surprised. Nelly soon realizes that she has crossed into the past and Marion is her mother – in eight year old form. This isn’t some sci-fi time warp. Nelly crosses over into the “past” so effortlessly you almost don’t notice. Sciamma focuses not on the logistics but on this ephemeral experience that Nelly is having.
The girls look strikingly similar. They like many of the same things and they have fun building the tree house together, making snacks, and putting on plays that they write and perform with each other. It’s a sweet friendship, made bitter sweet with the knowledge that Nelly is playing with her mother. Sciamma strikes a stark contrast between Marion the child and Marion the adult. Nelly’s mother clearly suffers from depression and it is noted that she often has to leave Nelly and her father to take care of herself. Marion the child has glimmers of this melancholy but she is not yet tarnished by the world. She dreams of being an actress and still has the hopeful naivete of childhood. Nelly quickly discovers the precariousness of the time jump and tries to soak up every last second with her “friend.”
This could all just be a sweet story of a friendship between mother and daughter but Sciamma doesn’t just leave it there. She explores the ways in which unexamined past traumas and pain have a ripple effect across generations. Nelly can feel her mother’s traumas even if she hasn’t experienced them herself because Marion carries them with her always. There’s also an interesting acknowledgement of Nelly realizing that her mother is a person with a past and her own troubles that don’t necessarily involve her daughter. As a child, it’s hard to comprehend that your parents might have worries or fears because they seem larger than life. And somewhat narcissisticly, it’s hard to imagine they have a life outside of you. In Petite Maman, Nelly gets to experience a tiny slice of her mother’s life outside of her own relationship with Marion the adult.
Like many of Sciamma’s films, Petite Maman is quiet, forcing the viewer to look inward for meaning rather than serving it to you on a platter. On the surface, the movie is about friendship between children. But Sciamma dives deeper and creates a time travel fairy tale that whisks you into an emotional and meaningful journey between a mother and daughter. Without a doubt, Sciamma continues to be one of the most interesting filmmakers of our time.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You admire Sciamma as a director
2. You like stories about time travel
3. You like stories about childhood and motherhood
