A Cozy, Whimsical Film About Growing Up
<em>Petite Maman</em> conjures the simple, wistful magic of girlhood make-believe.
In the early scenes of Céline Sciamma’s gentle new film, , 8-year-old Nelly (played by Joséphine Sanz) is exploring a haunted house of sorts—the quiet abode of her recently deceased grandmother. The location is mundane. Nonetheless, it’s tinged with melancholy, a feeling that someone Nelly’s age would have trouble articulating, but that Sciamma expresses easily with every emptied-out room and stilted adult conversation happening around her young protagonist.
