Ponette
by Jacques Doillon
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Delphine Schiltz, L?opoldine Serre, Marie Trintignant, Matiaz Bureau Caton, Victoire ThivisolDirector: Jacques Doillon
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 92 minutes
Release Date: 1999-05-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Fox Lorber
Studio: Fox Lorber
VHS Movie Reviews of Ponette
Movie Review: "Catch Me A Memory" ~ A Childhood Discourse On Death, The Afterlife And The Benefits Of Magic Smarties
Summary: 5 Stars
Note: French with English subtitles.
Synopsis: Little Ponette (Victoire Thivisol) has recently lost her Mother in a car accident. While her Father is loving and sympathetic towards his daughter, he offers little solace or hope to help her come to grips with her immense loss. After the funeral Ponette is left at boarding school where she attempts to deal with her loneliness with other children her own age who soon begin to offer advise on how Ponette may be able to remain in contact with her dead Mother. Death, dreams, Heaven, Jesus, the All-Mighty are all discussed by this group of bright, young minds who try and help her make sense of it all. Even the use and benefit of magic Smarties is considered as a possible avenue to the realm of the dead. Through all the grief and sorrow Ponette eventually discovers the subtle truth about such adults concerns and finds the courage to move on and accept things for what they are. After all, "Happy spirits like your Mommy never die."
Critique: `Ponette' is a thoroughly captivating French movie from '97 starring Victoire Thivisol, the most charming little four year old ever to appear on film. It's really quite disarming to witness such emotional angst portrayed so perfectly by a little child and it's all captured so intimately by the camera one almost feels as though you could reach out and comfort her. This film belongs in a category all its own, absolutely marvelous. Remember to keep a box of Kleenex close at hand when viewing.
Summary of Ponette
Fresh, attentive, and emotionally shattering, the French film Ponette is an attempt to enter the world of a 4-year-old girl whose mother has just been killed in a car accident on one of the winding roads in the mountainous countryside near Lyon. Played by pudgy, sad-eyed Victoire Thivisol (winner of a controversial but perfectly understandable Best Actress award at the 1996 Venice Film Festival), Ponette turns her grief into something else, something more childish and yet more mature. Convinced that her mother has been visiting her in her dreams, and that some day she will return in flesh and blood, Ponette invents a religion for herself with the specter of her mother at its center.By keeping his camera eye level with his young actors (who include Matiaz Bureau Caton and Delphine Schiltz as Ponette's know-it-all cousins) and miking the children so closely that their voices have the presence and authority of grown-up speech, director Jacques Doillon taps directly into the private world of childhood. The rolling landscape that extends for Elysian miles behind the characters gradually shifts from green to brown over the course of Ponette, suggesting the presence of death in life, and also the eternal cycle of the seasons that will allow life and love to return. --Dave Kehr
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