Petite Maman
2021
***
Director: Céline Sciamma
Cast: Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne
After her grandmother dies, eight-year-old Nelly explores her mother’s childhood home. She meets Marion, a girl her own age, in the nearby woods and realises that she is her mother as a child. Céline Sciamma's follow-up to Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a short, minimalist, and ultimately underwhelming fantasy drama that deals with grief, memories, and the fragile bonds between generations. Sciamma creates a pleasant autumnal atmosphere, but the central performances by twins Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz are so expressionless that they would be right at home in an Aki Kaurismäki film.
