The Secrets in Céline Sciamma's 'Petite Maman'
“Secrets aren’t always things we try to hide – there’s just no one to tell them to.” Those are the words of eight-year-old Nelly, the main character of Céline Sciamma’s first film since the critically acclaimed, Portrait of a Lady on Fire which was a stark departure from the conventional kinetic style employed in her earlier films Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood. While still maintaining her bold directorial voice, Petite Maman clarifies the direction she’s heading in. Further away from the traditional coming-of-age films to exaltations of the ordinary, the mundane and the forgotten.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a historical romance drama that follows the relationship between a noblewoman, Héloïse, and an artist, Marianne, who has been commissioned to paint a portrait of Héloïse secretly. One idea in Petite Maman that is retained from Portrait is the idea of love as a process of invention and reinvention. In the earlier film, this sentiment is communicated explicitly through Héloïse’s question for Marianne, “Do all lovers feel as though they’re inventing something?” It is portrayed in the plot of Petite Maman. Nelly’s maternal grandmother (for whom she is named) passes away and grief causes her mother Marion to leave. Nelly’s grief and sadness at her mother leaving her leads her to meet her own mother as another eight-year old in the process of building a fort in the woods. She is not aware of this initially and quickly befriends her before making the realization.
The inventiveness of love combined with that of a child’s imagination lead Nelly to overcome her grief and rekindle the bond she had with her mother. The young protagonist learns more about who her grandmother and mother were before years she was born. Learning more about the grandmother brings closure as prior to meeting the young Marion, Nelly felt as though she never got a chance to truly say goodbye. Learning more about her mother is revelatory and reaffirming. The once mysterious, distant figure is not only humanized in Nelly’s eyes but also becomes a dear friend to such a degree that when Nelly’s adult mother returns, the two embrace with what feels like a renewed understanding of the other.
Naturally, as is the case with most fantasy films, Nelly’s adult parents never know about her forays between time and space. Sciamma’s style of filmmaking is so understated you would not typically consider the film to be part of that genre if you went in blind. On my first watch, I assumed that Sciamma was alluding to memory and the version of her mother and grandmother that Nelly saw were just imaginary characters fuelled by her grief invoked reminiscing of the stories her mother had told her before about her own childhood with her own mother.
I, like many others, see the word “fantasy” and immediately jump to magic. Upon a second watch, in the midst of an antsy search for the magic I had missed, that quote from Nelly stuck out to me even more prominently than before, “Secrets aren’t always things we try to hide – there’s just no one to tell them to.” In the case of the film, the secret was so obvious. The magic was in the power of memory.
The set-up of the film is a very simple one; a girl and her family go to clear out her recently deceased grandmother's house. It is ordinary, natural and perhaps even a little mundane. Even more than that, it is familiar, especially to those familiar with Sciamma’s earlier filmography as the film is set in Cergy-Pontoise - the same setting as “Water Lilies'' and “Tomboy.” For each family member clearing out the house carries a different amount of weight. Nelly’s father who likely knew his mother-in-law the least is solid as an anchor and provides the emotional support that Nelly and Marion need while largely seeming unaffected. Nelly, who knew her grandmother towards the end of her life is affected but because she did not know her grandmother before her sickness, and this is likely her first experience with death. She does not grieve in the traditional sense though she is confused. Marion, on the other hand, who knew her mother the most, cannot even stomach being in her childhood home as she is overwhelmed by grief. Each character’s memory of the deceased significantly alters how they continue with their lives in the aftermath and this is most evident in the scene depicting the morning after they arrive at the house, before Marion’s departure. The father is very pragmatic and is quick to start clearing out things and making decisions as to where they should go. Nelly’s interest lies in the hut that her mother told her she made when she was younger. Marion is detached and visibly unhappy during the entire scene.
The composition also communicates the characters’ varied experiences as for most of the scene, the father is not completely in frame as he moves things around, Nelly sits upright full of energy and the sullen Marion almost slouches in her seat. We know that Marie grieves the most severely because of how Claire Mathon, the cinematographer uses light throughout the film. The inside of the house is full, and seemingly haunted with shadows in practically every corner. The woods however are full of light and the vibrant hues of autumn. We never see Marion outside. Most of the time she is steeped in the shadows of the house. Nelly on the other hand is mostly outdoors and when she is indoors, she never fails to catch the light that dares to creep in. The use of light reflects the internal sentiments of these characters and that light that remains in Nelly despite everything that happens is what helps her mother find some closure at the end of the film.
What was it that Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s Marianne felt when she saw Héloïse holding page 28? What was it that Héloïse felt when she heard Vivaldi’s summer? It is the exact same thing that Marion felt when she entered her childhood home with the knowledge that her mother would never scold or laugh with her in it again. It is the same thing that Nelly felt when her mother leaves abruptly and she is left to make sense of what has happened effectively on her own. It is a torrent of emotions spurred on by memory. Tiny, personal revolutions occur in these characters and it feels as though such a revolution has occurred in Sciamma and her approach to filmmaking as a whole. ♦