(1996)
4.5
Mike Cummings
Not long after graduating from diapers, four-year-old Victoire Thivisol won the Venice Film Festival's Best Actress award for her performance in this 1996 French film. She deserved the award for her moving portrayal of Ponette, a little girl coping with the death of her mother (Marie Trintignant). But the film itself is a bit wearisome. In its attempt to fathom Ponette's burden of grief and terror, it follows her through bout after bout of crying. It is truly remarkable that a four-year-old can turn her emotions on and off with such ease and with such a powerful effect, and the gimmick works for a while. Unfortunately, director Jacques Doillon takes Ponette's grief to implausible extremes, turning her into a virtual cloudburst. Of course, virtuosic crying cannot be justified by mere death alone, so Doillon cooks up other ways to make her cry. One is to have Daddy (Xavier Beauvois) tell her how dumb Mommy was for having a car crash. Another is to have Daddy drop her at a boarding school when she needs him most. And in the pièce de résistance, Ponette's playmates immure her in a dumpster as a kind of trial by ordeal that will qualify her to become a "child of God," enabling her to make contact with her mother. Ponette ends up pawing at her mother's grave and asking her playmates to help her die. But, wonder of wonders, the time comes when Ponette has a beautiful vision (or dream, or hallucination, or mirage, or possibly even miracle) that corks her lachrymal glands. The film is worth seeing -- if you like angst for angst's sake or if you want to witness the acting precocity of Thivisol and the other children, including Matiaz Caton, Leopoldine Serre, and Delphine Schiltz. But don't expect much of a plot or script.
Trailer
cast-crew for Ponette on AllMovie
Ponette (1996)
