Ponette is a 1996 French film. It is directed by Jacques Doillon, who is well-regarded for bringing in inexperienced actors for lead roles in his films.
The film centers on a little girl named Ponette, who has lost her mother in a car accident prior to the events of the film, which also subsequently broke Ponette's left hand. Sometime later, Ponette's father sends her to an aunt where she and her cousin are enrolled in a boarding school. Ponette's situation increasingly becomes more problematic as she is bullied for being motherless and is yet to come to terms with her mother's death, prompting her to start searching and waiting for her to appear.
Ponette is well regarded for being rather somber and grim in its tone and characterization. The film received acclaim from critics for its tackling of a child losing her mother, with special praise being given to the lead actress, Victoire Thivisol, who played Ponette and was 4 during filming.
This film contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Ponette meets her mother at the cemetery beside her grave. It's made abundantly clear that she is dead, yet the circumstances of her presence are never really elaborated. She gives Ponette her own red sweater, which further adds to the mystique. Was it a hallucination in Ponette's mind or was it the ghost of her mother who came by to see Ponette and talk to her one last time?
- Alone in a Crowd: Ponette is usually reclusive and stows herself away from company more often than not, even in public areas, sulking about missing her mother.
- Anguished Outburst: Ponette gets into a fight against a schoolmate after she refused to return his toy gun to him, which then escalates to them whacking arms at each other and the boy stating that Ponette's mother died because she "had a bad child". The fight ends with Ponette running away in tears.
- Back from the Dead: Called "Resurrection" here, but that's a disambiguation: The term is referenced a couple of times, and the story of Jesus convinces Ponette that at some point, her mother will come back to life and they will reunite. As a result, while an actual resurrection doesn't happen, the meaning of the term is Played for Drama; everyone else insists that's not the case, but Ponette, too engulfed by grief, is in denial of their complaints and continues thinking her mother will come back. It isn't until she confronts her mother (probably) and shares one last conversation) that she gives up thinking about her resurrection.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ponette comes to terms with her mother's death and has to accept that she is never coming back. That said, she departs with her father with a newfound sense of optimism via her mother's parting words to try being happy throughout her life.
- Boarding School of Horrors: Ponette gets sent off to a boarding school by her Aunt Claire, alongside Claire's children, Delphine and Matiaz, to be educated. Unfortunately, the kids there aren't so kind to Ponette's despondency. This trope is Downplayed, however, as there is a staff member who tries to emotionally help Ponette and not all of the kids there are mean to her, Delphine and Matiaz included.
- Bookends: The film begins with Ponette and her father talking about her mother's death and driving to Aunt Claire's house, and ends with Ponette coming to terms with her mother's death and driving away with her father out of the cemetery.
- Break the Cutie: Ponette becomes an emotional wreck ever since her mother's death, which occurred before the film begins and she keeps getting insulted, belittled, and not taken seriously over time due to her difficulty in moving on from losing her mother, which only adds to her sadness and grief.
- Color Motif: Ponette is usually wearing a grey sweater, which adds to her nature of a grieving girl who longs to see her mother, despite everyone telling her that she is dead, alongside being quiet and upset most of the time. At the end of the film, she is wearing a red sweater given to her by her mother, which represents love (a platonic variation) and desire (Ponette wanting to see her mother again).
- Despair Event Horizon: Ponette constantly keeps getting belittled, ignored, and harrassed for being obsessed about her mother and then gets into a fight with a boy after he mocks her loss. Shortly after, Ponette loses all hope and considers killing herself with a gun. Thankfully, Matiaz stops her from doing so.
- Determinator: Ponette never stops wanting to meet with her mother. It's Deconstructed as her insistent attempts to communicate with her only make Ponette more miserable and her fellow classmates start to tease and mock her for it.
- Downer Beginning: The film opens with a melancholic score, followed by the title character sucking the thumb of her broken left hand. Her father draws a dog on the cast that Ponette has on her left hand whilst stating how her mother is in bad shape and is about to die.
- Driven to Suicide: Later on in the film, Ponette becomes so depressed and angry about her situation that she cries about how she will take a gun and then shoot herself. It alarms Matiaz to the point where he tells her that he cares about her and talks her out of killing herself.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Ponette has a stuffed teddy bear that she gives to her father (who, in turn, exchanges with his watch) upon him departing her to the company of her Aunt Claire. She later plays with another stuffed bear with a doll.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Ponette has blond hair, and despite her stubborn and impulsive nature, Matiaz and her mother describe the girl as "nutty, but good".
- Injured Limb Episode: Throughout the entire film, Ponette has to live out with a broken left hand that she sustained in a car crash that took her mother's life.
- Innocence Lost: Having to lose her mother all so suddenly in a car accident and sustaining a broken hand in the same incident, Ponette becomes a distant and melancholic girl who desperately tries to believe her mother can come back in some capacity or another and, in turn, constantly has to be reminded that she will never come back, even when told about the concept of resurrection.
- I Miss Mom: The plot of the film revolves around this trope. Ponette's mother died before the film begins, but because Ponette happens to have been very close to her, she becomes irate and troubled about the fact that she is alone with her mother, and Ponette becomes obsessed and desperate in wanting to reach out to her, even blindly believing that she could be resurrected.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ponette's father. While cold and rather critical about his wife's death, he does take care and tries to look after his daughter, even giving her a dog drawing in her cast and his watch as a means to motivate and keep her content. Matiaz also counts as despite being heavily dismissive of Ponette's fixation on her mother, he does try to talk her out of committing suicide, tells her she is "nutty, but good" and even hands her his own Batman plushie as a sign of goodwill.
- Kick the Dog: Even when some of the kids learn that Ponette is upset, it doesn't change them from acting annoyed and frustrated towards her, alongside telling her angrily that her mother will never come back. The only thing it really does is upsetting Ponette even further.
- Love Makes You Crazy: A platonic and death-related variant; Ponette is so overwhelmed by the death of her mother that she is desperate in wanting to meet her again that she legitimately believes in resurrection, and that her mother will come back to life, something that even kids her age think is logically impossible. However, her constant mentions of her mother end up annoying everyone around her, which only serves to make Ponette more of a pariah among her peers.
- Missing Mom: Ponette's mother died in a car crash prior to the film. Despite her death, the mother remains an influential figure in the overall plot of the film.
- Moving Beyond Bereavement: The main theme of the film is accepting and moving on from one's death and this is something the title character struggles to do so after surviving a car crash that kills her mother and leaves Ponette with a broken left hand. Ponette hasn't gotten over her mother's death, given that she is 4, and becomes desperate in wanting to meet her again, often having to imagine (even believing) that her mother is beside her and believing that she will come back to life just like Jesus did. Ponette goes through a lot of grief, insults, and neglect as a result, until she visits her mother's grave and happens to meet her (whether it's a spirit or a hallucination is left unclear), and it's Ponette's last proper interaction with her mother that allows her to accept her mother's death and move on, with the mother's last words to learn to be happy.
- Not So Stoic: Ponette normally appears to be a quiet and reclusive little girl, but it's made clear that the death of her mother has made her overly emotional and she is very prone to reacting with annoyance, anger, desperation, and sadness.
- Off to Boarding School: Ponette, Delphine, and Matiaz are sent off to a boarding school by Aunt Claire so that they could be educated and taught. Unfortunately...
- Pet the Dog:
- Ponette's father draws a dog on her left hand cast out of affection for his daughter and later gives her his watch so that she can remember him whilst he is away and she goes to Aunt Claire's house.
- Delphine and Matiaz act annoyed whenever Ponette mentions her mother, but in spite of that, they do feel concerned and considerate about Ponette and are one of the few kids in the boarding school to not bully her for it. Despite being more aloof than Delphine, it is Matiaz who decides to console Ponette when she is at her lowest point and talks her out of taking her own life.
- One of the teachers in the boarding school is generous enough to allow Ponette to go to the prayer room and pray and ask about her mother there.
- Posthumous Character: While she is dead before the start of the film, Ponette's mother plays a large influence and presence throughout the narrative, which makes sense, given that the premise is Ponette struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother.
- Prone to Tears: Ponette is usually close to crying in most of her scenes and sobs on occasion as she is constantly reminded by her mother and either nobody is helping her in resurrecting her mother or any aid ends up being unsuccessful.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Ponette's father states that her mother was stupid because, in his viewpoint, she died in a car crash without being drunk or distracted and knowing the road she was driving by heart. Ponette, on the other hand, rebukes the statement, claiming that she didn't crash on purpose.
- Talking to the Dead: Ponette indulges in this; she thinks she has conversations with her deceased mother when to everyone else, she's talking to nothing and tell her off when Ponette is explaining her side of things. Ponette comes into actual contact with her near the end when she visits her mother's cemetery, though it's left unclear if Ponette met her spirit or was just imagining things.
- Trauma Conga Line: Ponette's mother dies, she is left to mourn for her death whilst everyone else is unaware of how depressed she is feeling. Then, when she tries to find a way to communicate with her mother in some way and wants help, she is ignored at best and is bullied for it at worst. After getting into a fight against a fellow boy who mocks her depression, Ponette starts thinking about committing suicide with a gun. Thankfully, Matiaz convinces her not to carry on with it.
- Troubled Child: Ponette's behavior throughout the film is not really like most other sorts of children, being very quiet, melancholic, and reclusive, and being reactive when having to talk to somebody. Justified, given how Ponette is still reeling from her mother's death and is struggling to move on from the event.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Unlike any other child in the film, Ponette is morose, grumpy, depressed, prone to claiming that she is seeing her mother, in spite of her being dead, and contemplating suicide.
- She told me to learn to be happy.
