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(as of Apr 03, 2025 05:38:52 UTC – Details)
Live-action films about the very young are rare, and even more rare are such films that work as well as Ponette does, without cloying or pandering. The film stars 4-year old actress Victoire Thivisol as Ponette, who’s lost her mother in a car accident. The rest of the film has her dealing with this loss, helped by relatives, but mostly by the other children she knows, and the help is sometimes heartening and sometimes hindering. The core events in the film are nearly all enacted by children, peers of Ponette. Sequenced as they are, they form what can only be termed the mythologies of childhood, using the contrast of childhood and death and the children’s take on it to drive Ponette’s changing attitudes. The result is seen passing across the face of Victoire Thivisol, one of the most luminous faces since Maria Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc. Filmed cannily in close-ups, we’re always privy to the artless emotions of the young girl. She’s not old enough yet to have learned to dissemble. Her direct, unaffected performance (if that’s what it is) draws us close in as few films have been able to do. If you’re unaffected by this film, you might want to reconsider what kind of organism you’d like to be other than a human being. Victoire Thivisol was named Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival 1996. –Jim Gay
Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.38 x 0.6 inches; 3.2 ounces
Director : Jacques Doillon
Media Format : Dolby, Subtitled, Color, NTSC, Full Screen
Run time : 1 hour and 37 minutes
Release date : January 1, 1997
Actors : Victoire Thivisol, Delphine Schiltz, Matiaz Bureau Caton, Lopoldine Serre, Marie Trintignant
Dubbed: : French
Subtitles: : English
Language : French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Studio : Fox Lorber
ASIN : 1572522747
Writers : Brune Compagnon, Jacques Doillon
Number of discs : 1
Mockingbird –
You’re Never Too Old to Heal
Have you or someone you’ve known lost parent when you were very young? When death or divorce shakes up the world of a child it can be so confusing for a child-like mind to make sense of what has happened. It’s almost like our minds are made up of a long row of coat hooks. Each hook represents an experience you’ve had and what you’ve learned from it.Let’s say you go the beach at noon in the summer without sunscreen. You play in the sun for 2 hours. You’re not surprised when you get sunburned. When you start feeling your skin getting hot and painful you don’t cry and wonder, “what is happening to me?” You already have a mental coat hook to hang that information on because it’s probably happened to you before or to someone you know.When a child loses a parent, if nothing like that has ever happened before, there is no coat hook to hang the information on. The information seems to float around until a new coat hook gets created in your mind. Maybe that child finally meets another child who lost a parent. New coat hook: I am not alone. Or maybe that child hears an adult say something nice about the parent they lost. New coat hook: My parent was nice. Eventually as time passes the growing child may have experiences where, during a grief-stricken prayer, they feel that the Lord understands their pain and comforts them. New coat hook: It helps to pray. God can comfort me when I am hurt.I just watched this sweet movie, called Ponette, about a little girl who lost her mother. It was comforting for me to watch this little girl’s struggle to make sense of losing a parent. I was her age when my father died, so her emotions, the off-handed comments and advice from her young peers (and the few adults in the film) was so familiar! It made me realize how capable and determined children can be in making sense of their world, and how natural it can be for them to be drawn to God.Other family members who watched it with me had never lost a parent, so the film seemed sad to them. It didn’t seem sad at all to me. It was so comforting, refreshing and healing to watch; even funny at times. New coat hook: you’re never to old to heal a little more.
Thomas J. Farruggella –
Incredible performance in a little-known film
One of my favorite foreign films, largely due to heart-rending performance of young Victoire Thivisol.Her intense and authentic portrayal of a 4 year old in the grips of maddening grief due to the loss of her mother is metaphysical. I cannot fathom the source of the depth of her performance.
Jay Lane –
You Can’t Go Wrong!
A few days ago I was describing this marvellous little 1996 film to a friend and promised to send a link to my review. Imagine my shock when I discovered that I have never written one. Shame on me!Here goes:This award-winning French drama focuses on a four-year-old girl who is in a car accident with her mother. The mother is killed but the little girl only suffers a broken arm. Her distraught father works a job that entails a lot of travel, consequently as soon as she is out of the hospital, he parks her with a benevolent aunt and two lively cousins, who are about her age.When Ponette sleeps she dreams about her mother, but is grieved to learn that she can’t “keep” her when she awakens. This prompts MUCH discussion with well-meaning folks, both children and adults, about what happens when a person dies.Little Victorie Thivisol, who plays our eponymous and much-loved heroine, tries to cobble together some semblance of meaning out of these various religious beliefs, but still grieves. She withdraws from everyone and tries chanting, praying, confronting her fears, taking risks, anything that might bring her mother back.Director Jacques Doillon does brilliant work with children. There is only one fleeting moment on a school playground where one of the extras seems a bit self conscious, otherwise these little actors are flawless, the script is authentic, and our little Ponette demonstrates a wrenchingly strong character.I’ve owned this French DVD (English captions) for years, so it must be available from the standard outlets; it certainly deserves a look. You can’t go wrong!
Peter M –
THE GREATEST TEAR JERKER OF ALL TIME
This multi award winning French film is very hard to find on the internet on dvd. It deserves a Criterion release.The story is simple. Ponette’s mother has died.The entire film is about the way this very young child deals with the situation.To tell you any more would ruin the film for you. The film’s opening is a tear jerker and it never lets up until the very end. One scene towards the finale will have you crying buckets.There has never been a more gut – wrenching tear jerker film in cinema history. It has won numerous awards from around the world including several best actress awards for the child..This film is like no other. One of the greatest French films ever made and the best about childhood.A MASTERPIECE.
Mtn Man –
Enchanting Performances – Mediocre DVD
Repeated viewings of this movie over a period of three years have stood the test of time. It is every bit as wonderful the tenth viewing as it was the first. I need not describe the movie as it has been done very thoroughly by other reviewers here, and in IMDB review links. The movie gets 5 stars. However, the DVD would benefit from a letterbox wide screen format and subtitles positioned in the black letterbox area. Regardless, video is clear and audio is good. As an aside, in a NY Times article Ms. Thivisol recalls her experience as pleasant and says it was, “way better than school.” Filming began in September of 1995 and finished in 1996, somewhat less than a year. Ms. Thivisol recieved her Venice Film Festival award in late August/early September of 1996.
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jean-jacques –
un film extraordinaire , où une petite fille de 4 ans qui vient de perdre sa mère dans un accident de voiture fait tout pour essayer de la revoirsans relâche en priant de toutes ses forces ! jacques doillon signe içi un de ces meilleurs films , et prouve qu’il fait parti des meilleursréalisateurs français , car il fallait osez faire un film avec une comédienne aussi jeune , et qui joue merveilleusement bien !certaines scènes sont trés émouvantes surtout là où elle prie en pleurant le bon dieu de lui laisser revoir sa mère ! difficile de rester de marbre face à la détresse de cette enfant joué à merveille par Victoire Thivisol (ponette) , qui à reçue le prix d’interprétation au festival de venise 1996 !! bravo pour cette prouesse surtout à l’âge de 4 ans !
robby movie freak –
delivered on time beautiful moviemust dee dvd
Avid knitter –
One of the best films I have ever seen. I cannot understand how they make a four year old child act so naturally. A heartwrenching film. I have ordered the film for my collection as I was looking for it for a long time and happened to find it on Amazon.ca.
Rene Blondiau –
1A-Ware, schnelle Lieferung, gerne wieder!