Product Details

• Actors: Victoire Thivisol, Delphine Schiltz, Matiaz Bureau Caton, Léopoldine Serre, Marie Trintignant
• Directors: Jacques Doillon
• Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: May 25, 1999
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304897154
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,362 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #47 in	Video > Art House & International > Widescreen
  #56 in	Video > Art House & International > European Cinema > France > Drama
  #57 in	Video > Drama > Family Life > Mothers & Daughters

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Fresh, attentive, and emotionally shattering, the French film Ponette is an attempt to enter the world of a 4-year-old girl whose mother has just been killed in a car accident on one of the winding roads in the mountainous countryside near Lyon. Played by pudgy, sad-eyed Victoire Thivisol (winner of a controversial but perfectly understandable Best Actress award at the 1996 Venice Film Festival), Ponette turns her grief into something else, something more childish and yet more mature. Convinced that her mother has been visiting her in her dreams, and that some day she will return in flesh and blood, Ponette invents a religion for herself with the specter of her mother at its center.

By keeping his camera eye level with his young actors (who include Matiaz Bureau Caton and Delphine Schiltz as Ponette's know-it-all cousins) and miking the children so closely that their voices have the presence and authority of grown-up speech, director Jacques Doillon taps directly into the private world of childhood. The rolling landscape that extends for Elysian miles behind the characters gradually shifts from green to brown over the course of Ponette, suggesting the presence of death in life, and also the eternal cycle of the seasons that will allow life and love to return. --Dave Kehr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ponette, January 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ponette (DVD)

Amazon asks us to rate the DVD, not the film, so here is my assessment. Anyone who is a fan of French film should stop buying DVDs produced by Fox Lorber. "Ponette" is produced by Fox Lorber, and once again the company has demonstrated it knows nothing about cinema as an art form and cares little about exploiting the inherent advantages of the DVD medium.

Originally shot in widescreen format, Fox Lorber has given us "Ponette" in reduced form (1.33 to 1). While many of the film's shots are close-ups, the reduced aspect ratio severely hampers the contrasting visual effect of the wide panoramic shots of the splendid lyonnais countryside.

In addition, Fox Lorber shortchanges foreign-film aficionados and language teachers by allowing no user control of the film's subtitles. Finally, this DVD lacks a chronometer (time remaining, time elapsed) for easy scene/shot retrieval. The "extras" Fox Lorber gives users are not worth mentioning, and were not worth the very tiny effort Fox Lorber made to include them.

In short, "Ponette" is a wonderful film that is definitely worth seeing (try renting it through Facets if your local video store doesn't carry it), but this Fox Lorber-produced DVD is definitely NOT worth spending your money on.

When Fox Lorber decides to start devoting care, effort, and money into its DVDs, then people should reward this through their purchases. Until then, as long as Fox Lorber gives us second-rate products, we should refuse to give them our money.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Outstanding, Beautiful, December 11, 1999

By	J. C. Vera "intellectualised" (Miami, Fl United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's hard to find the words to express how this film made me feel (surprisingly I found myself crying just 4 minutes into the movie); but I must declare that it has certainly moved me deeply. I have seen few movies where the performances are as believable as this one. The storyline is simple yet beautiful. The cinematography is perfectly carried out from light tones into the colours of fall/winter. And the ending (while not "loved" by all viewers) is moving and brings a lot of hope to anyone who has ever experience a heartache (or life for that matter). I happened to see "Ponette" at a time when I nearly lost my mom to an illness and it made me realise the importance of keeping the faith and maintaining my heart open . This film has quickly made it into my list of top flicks. I recommend it to all people, even if you are not into "sad" films (I for one was not before this one), You are gonna love the movie and you'll ADORE little Victorie Thivisol. Thank You Amy for recommending me this film.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About belief, magic and coming to terms with grief, June 14, 2004

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Ponette (DVD)

This is quite an amazing film; the lead actress is Victoire Thivosol ("Chocolat"--Anouk) who gives an award-winning performance at the tender age of 4 years old. She plays Ponette, the young daughter of a woman killed in an auto accident. Her father, unable to deal well with the loss himself, leaves Ponette at an aunt's and ultimately at a children's school. During the school days and the weekends with her cousins, Ponette deals with the horrendous loss. She seeks her own form of belief, and is bumped around by all the other children, who good-naturedly or not try to share their own beliefs and magic gestures to make sense of the world.

The ending doesn't please everyone but I liked it, especially for the cameo role played by Marie Trintignant. The camera angle is interesting throughout--tight and close and at child-level. We see the world up close and at Ponette's viewpoint, adding to the feeling of being overwhelmed and buffeted by life.

This film is well-deserving of the many awards it received and Victoire Thivisol is nothing short of amazing. Definitely see this one.