DUNEDIN FILM SOCIETY
WELCOME TO OUR NEXT SCREENING
Céline Sciamma's
PETITE MAMAN
(France | 2021 | 72 mins | PG cert)
Wednesday 9 April, 7.30PM, University of Otago’s Castle 1 Lecture Theatre**
A young girl makes a mysterious new friend while staying over at her late grandmother’s country home in Céline Sciamma’s exquisitely crafted and spellbinding modern fairytale.
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| "Movies tend to paint childhood in primary colours, mistaking small people for small interior worlds. But French auteur Céline Sciamma – who for years has centred her stories on young girls awakening to themselves in arthouse hits including Water Lilies, Tomboy, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire – doesn’t do them that disservice in Petite Maman, a tiny thunderbolt of a film… Dragged along by her distracted, grieving mother (Nina Meurisse) to clear out the remote country house of her recently deceased grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) eventually goes looking for her own entertainment outside. In the woods one day she meets Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), also eager to play—maybe because she looks, from the curls in her hair to the tip of her nose, like Nelly’s mirror image” (Leah Blatt, Entertainment Weekly).
FURTHER REVIEW
"As for Nelly and her double, so for Sciamma. She, too, is calm and light-footed in her pragmatic approach. Petite Maman is a time-travel movie, no question, yet it feels strange to apply that label, because of the restrained manner in which Sciamma strips the genre of its trappings: no wormholes, no Wellsian contraption, no Stargate, not even a simple DeLorean. “You come from the future?,” the young Marion asks. “I come from the path behind you,” Nelly replies. The past is there, just out of sight, around the corner and behind the trees... Petite Maman is a minor miracle. It’s a modest fable, possessed of an imaginative reach that far exceeds its dimensions" (Anthony Lane, The New Yorker).
Finally, watch director Céline Sciamma discuss Petite Maman in this extensive interview!
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Please Note:
A reminder to members that the 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Dunedin Film Society will be held in Castle One lecture theatre this Wednesday 9 April at 7.30pm. (Members wishing to have their apologies recorded for the AGM should email them to the Society's gmail address.)
The evening's scheduled screening of Petite Maman will commence at approximately 7.45pm.
And a further reminder: the NZ Federation of Film Societies has cancelled the screenings of How Far Is Heaven (ours was 23 July) because one of the subjects of the film now objects to it being shown. The Society's Committee is now in negotiation with the Federation to secure a suitable replacement title – we will advise members of this soon as possible.––––––––––––––––
ABOUT THE DUNEDIN FILM SOCIETY
ADMISSION
Free to members.
TO JOIN
To purchase a Full Season membership:- complete a membership form from our website and pay by online bank transfer (06-0942-0696013-00);
- or join at the door before any screening (cash only).
- you can also join at the OUSA office reception at the University of Otago (cash only).
Alternatively, you can purchase a Three-Film sampler ($25), which can be also be shared to bring two friends to one screening. The sampler does not expire and can be used over multiple years.
Membership includes generous discounts at Rialto Cinemas (from Monday to Friday) and the 2025 Dunedin Whānau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival; and FREE entry to the 2025 screenings of all other affiliated New Zealand Film Societies. Each member is entitled to ONE FREE GUEST ADMISSION to a single screening.
**To get to the Castle 1 Theatre: walk up between the University of Otago’s Arts building (Burns) and Information Services building (Central Library), on Albany Street.
WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK!... on this screening, or any other Dunedin Film Society showing, on dunedinfi...@gmail.com –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– |
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Dunedin Film SocietyPO BOX 6139 Dunedin North Dunedin, Otago 9059New Zealand |
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