PONETTE   1996 Directed by Jacques Doillon 97 minutes In French with English subtitles

Almost everyone who has seen this film has gone away deeply haunted and changed by it. The story is shot entirely from the perspective of four-year-old Ponette (Victoire Thivisol), a girl who is coming to terms with the death of her mother (Marie Trintignant) who has perished in a car accident. Not only is she grappling with trying to understand what death even is, but she also can't comprehend what she will never ever see her mother again. What is left is an incredible hole, a void that Ponette has to deal with in some way. What we have here is an incredible portrayal of grief, so rare in the history of cinema, as little Ponette attempts to make sense of this wild world... of trying to come to grips with the unbearable. No one knows how to help her, so her search is a solitary journey to try and come to peace with her life.

This journey is emotionally visceral, almost like primal therapy, as we go through all of these confused emotions. It's an intense film that you can't shake off after you have seen it... it just doesn't go away, it lingers and haunts. Why? Because deep down there is something we recognize in it, that we have forgotten about, that is never spoken and rarely touched upon. And this film nails it down through the cathartic performance of the main child-actress Victoire Thivisol. She gives an astounding performance, unmatched in cinema history. Ponette is a gift directed by Jacques Doillon, whose films are rarely ever screened outside of France. Another neglected cinematic treasure.

This will be a high-definition screening