PONETTE (Arrow - 1996) Starring Victoire Thivisol, Matiaz Bureau, Delphine Schiltz, Marie Trintignant, Xavier Beauvois Screenplay by Jacques Doillon Produced by Alain Sarde Directed by Jacques Doillon Running time: 92 minutes
*** (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: B
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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It is certain that the lion's share of attention that Jacques Doillon's film, PONETTE, has drawn is due to the acclaim heaped upon the performance by the film's lead, Victoire Thivisol, who grabbed headlines and turned heads when she was awarded the Best Actress prize in a unanimous decision in September 1996 at the prestiguous Venice Film Festival. The kicker is that Ms. Thivisol was *four years old* when PONETTE was filmed.
I have always considered it condescending and somewhat insulting to differentiate quality of any type of work based solely upon age (random example: "that film review was pretty inept, but *he's only a teenager*, cut him some slack"), so it should be pointed out that Ms. Thivisol's performance is not simply excellent *for a child actor* or excellent *for a four-year old* -- her performance is simply excellent *period*, no qualifiers necessary. It's a truly incredible piece of work -- bold, poised, and completely true-to-life without seeming remotely forced or artificial. Ms. Thivisol demonstrates a remarkable sense of ease in front of the camera with astonishing emotional volatility, and glimpses in her phenomenal work in PONETTE are perhaps the definitive cinematic portrayal of grief.
It is important that Ms. Thivisol is superb in the title role of the film, since the nature of PONETTE virtually demands her to be nothing short of excellence; her performance is absolutely critical to the success of the film. PONETTE's storyline is a fairly straightforward one - young Ponette, left with a broken arm from an automobile accident, is told by her father that her mother has died in the crash, and spends the remainder of the film coming to terms with this loss. PONETTE focuses intently on Ms. Thivisol, who has a daunting amount of screentime, and anything short of a superb performance by her would have shattered the aura of authenticity permeating the film and resulted in a work which would have seemed more contrived and melodramatic.
While I was captivated by the wonderful performance of little Ms. Thivisol and her castmates (child performers Matiaz Bureau and Delphine Schiltz, playing Ponette's cousins who try to help in her healing process, are also nothing short of outstanding), I was also acutely aware that very little was occuring onscreen -- the film tends to become somewhat repetitive in the second act, rehashing the same motifs. This material seemed to be overextended for a feature-length film, even one that has a relatively short running time of 92 minutes, and could have been much more powerful had it been trimmed down significantly.
Mr. Doillon, perhaps aware of the lack of material in PONETTE and enraptured by the performance coaxed from Ms. Thivisol, consequently spends a great deal of time with lingering close-ups of her. Too much of the film involves grief-stricken Ponette bursting into tears, which is always affecting but begins to lose its emotional impact when repeated incessantly.
The ultimate resolution of PONETTE is inevitable from the outset of the film, but I question whether or not it was wise for Mr. Doillon to approach it in such a literal fashion -- on its own, independent of the rest of the film, it works well, as Marie Trintignant and Ms. Thivisol play well off each other and demonstrate an easy fluidity (although in terms of pacing their scene could stand to be shortened), but given the naturalistic tone of set by the preceding scenes in PONETTE, it seemed vaguely out of place within the context of film. I am also unconvinced that Mr. Doillon successfully extracted the raw emotional power of the film's final scene, resulting in a conclusion which is only halfheartedly cathartic.
Many of the film's great moments involves the interplay between Ponette and her cousins Matiaz and Delphine, and later between the three children and the other youngsters at the boarding school. It is fascinating to watch them naively and guilessly discuss and attempt to grasp such involved, challenging abstractions as death, heaven, God, and reincarnation, stripping down many of the theological discussions to their basic elements in the manner that only young children, free from preconceptions or prejudices, are able to do.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Mr. Doillon's PONETTE, other than the astonishing way in which he elicits outstanding performances from his predominantly young cast, is how he easily infiltrates the mind of a young child, and immerses the film in elemental simplicity to such an extent that the audience is coerced into observing the proceedings though unsullied eyes, with childlike perception. Watching PONETTE harkens back to an easier, more innocent time, where issues and concepts of complexity could be satisfactorily addressed with seemingly crystal clarity by simple answers.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
--
Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
"God, I loved it. 'I'll send you a copy.' BAM! Bitch went down.
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- Rose McGowan, SCREAM
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