What Did Mom Look Like in Her Childhood? 'Petit Maman' [Joohee Kang's Video Prism]

What If You Become Friends with Your Mom?
Director C?line Sciamma's Story of 'Mom and Daughter'

Still image from the movie 'Petite Maman'./Photo by Chanran

Editor's Note How do you remember that scene? Have you ever suddenly recalled a moment from a movie? This is likely because films are closely connected to our lives. Movies offer another perspective on reality. We present various viewpoints on reality by highlighting a single scene from a film. Please note that there may be spoilers in the process of describing the scenes.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Before a mother was called "mom," what kind of person was she?

Director C?line Sciamma's "Petite Maman" tells the story of a mother and daughter who meet in a space beyond time. In that space, they temporarily set aside their mother-daughter relationship and share words they had kept in their hearts but never directly expressed to each other. This conversation is an intimate dialogue between the two, but it is also a process of filling the void left by someone's death. The film attempts to fill that emptiness with a special emotion born not in reality but in another time and space.

The film begins with 8-year-old Nelly facing her grandmother's death at a nursing home. As if she has visited several times before, Nelly bids a final farewell to the elderly residents who lived with her grandmother at the nursing home. In her grandmother's empty hospital room, where belongings have been cleared away, Nelly's mother, Marion, stands silently gazing somewhere beyond the window. Marion's back, having just lost her own mother, exudes sorrow, and Nelly can only watch her silently.

Still image from the movie 'Petite Maman'./Photo by Chanran

To Nelly, Marion is an enigmatic figure. She is always a kind mother but is always silent and wears a somber expression, making it hard to know what she is thinking. Nelly knows that Marion is immersed in grief after her mother's passing, but Marion does not burst into tears. Nelly is curious about the emotions hidden behind Marion's inscrutable expression and wants to comfort her.

The next day, after coming to the forest house where Marion lived to sort through her grandmother's belongings, Marion leaves somewhere, and Nelly is left alone with her father. Then, in the forest near the house where Marion had built a cabin in her childhood, Nelly encounters a girl her own age. That girl's name is also Marion. Nelly immediately realizes that this girl, who resembles her in many ways, is her mother when she was young. Nelly and young Marion naturally become friends.

The film highlights the meaning of the close yet unfamiliar relationship of family through a fantasy setting where mother and daughter meet across time and space. As friends, Nelly and young Marion quickly bond by building a cabin together and playing board games like other children their age. Then Nelly confesses to young Marion that she is her daughter. Young Marion is neither surprised nor shaken and calmly asks, "Are you from the future?" "I'm glad to meet you."

Spending time with young Marion, Nelly gradually learns more about what kind of person her mother is. From small preferences like Marion liking to eat clumps of cocoa powder, to the fact that she originally dreamed of becoming an actress, and that she feels fear before surgery to prevent a hereditary disease that causes leg pain like her grandmother.

Still image from the movie 'Petite Maman'./Photo by Chanran

Confessing what one fears is a major theme of this film. To young Nelly, adults seem to have no fears and appear to solve any problem well. After parting with young Marion and returning home, Nelly suddenly asks her father what he was afraid of as a child. Her father whispers to her, "I was afraid of my dad." Nelly gradually realizes that adults, like herself, have fears and anxieties they do not want to reveal.

"There won't be a next time." After finishing sorting through her grandmother's belongings, when her father suggests leaving the house, Nelly asks to spend one more night with young Marion and says this. During their last moments together, Nelly confides her fears to young Marion. "Mom is often depressed. It seems like she doesn't really want to live." "Sometimes I think it's because of me." In response, young Marion comforts her, saying, "She's not sad because of you." "You didn't make me sad."

While the film depicts what Nelly experiences during Marion's absence, it also tells the emotional ripple effects Marion is going through in the present. Just as Nelly feels a sense of loss from Marion's absence and her grandmother's death and farewell, Marion, who silently left somewhere, is also enduring the void left by Nelly and her deceased mother. Nelly can now understand her mother. And even though they are physically apart, their affectionate feelings for each other transcend time and space, connecting them as one.

"Petite Maman" incorporates fantasy elements as the core setting of the film but does not depict any special device that enables time travel. The encounter between Nelly and young Marion happens naturally during a walk in the forest. This cinematic portrayal implies that there is no need for a special trigger or magical moment to talk about fears and comfort each other. Through Nelly's line, "There won't be a next time," the film conveys the message to the audience that such a moment can be created right now, at any time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.