January 30, 1998
The strangest and perhaps most exciting gift French cinema offers us, the American moviegoers, is the distinct ability to pursue new perspectives. Ponette, a delicate tale of a little girl coping with her mother's death, contributes to this overseas enchantment by casting a unique point of view for its audience.
It appears, as the story unfolds, that we are simply watching, following and wandering around the small, extremely innocent world of a lost child. She cries. She plays. She prays - like all children do. Ponette, though, has lost her mother. Writer/Director Jacques Doillon doesn't place a camera within
inches of her tears, her walk or her flattened palms just for the sake of it: Doillon's passion for his story lies within the motivations behind this method, and this is where Ponette opens the widest part of our minds.
With the hand-crafted marksmanship of a great archer, cinematographer Caroline Champetier creates a subtle yet invading mood with her primary object - Victoire Thivisol as Ponette. Together with Doillon, the three force you to feel the pull of emotional strings in Ponette's life along with her. Thivisol's
absolutely magical portrayal is unbelievably real - the furthest
thing from acting. As proud as Doillon is of his work, even he could not think this lovable girl could perform so remarkably and sincerely. Champetier and Doillon, as her guides, have great secrets to tell the future Star Kids of motion pictures.
The only downside to this mostly tender coming-of-age film is that the script's continuing sympathetic feel becomes almost repetitively annoying. Director Doillon's obsession with
his young actress begins to interfere with the plot movement, despite Thivisol's engaging, highly cute character.
Ponette has received a gift from the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as the National Society of Film Critics for Best Foreign Language Film of 1997. It opens today at the Enzian Cinema Cafe almost two years after its original French release in 1996. (Subtitled, 97 minutes)
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