My Little Princess (2011)

When Hanah re-emerges in the life of her pre-pubescent daughter, she comes with a strange, yet attractive proposition: she needs her own girl to pose for her in ways that would later take by surprise the Parisian art world of the 1970s.

Director:

Eva Ionesco

Writers:

Eva Ionesco, Marc Cholodenko (in collaboration with)

Stars:

Isabelle Huppert, Anamaria Vartolomei, Georgetta Leahu

3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Isabelle Huppert	...	Hanah Giurgiu
Anamaria Vartolomei	...	Violetta Giurgiu
Georgetta Leahu	...	Mamie
Denis Lavant	...	Ernst
Jethro Cave	...	Updike
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing	...	Antoine Dupuis, l'éditeur
Pascal Bongard	...	Jean
Anne Benoît	...	Mme Chenus, l'assistante sociale
Johanna Degris-Agogue	...	Apolline
Déborah Révy	...	Nadia
Lou Lesage	...	Rose
Nicolas Maury	...	Louis
Pauline Jacquard	...	Fifi (as Pauline Jacquart)
Eve Bitoun	...	Mme Émilie
Joe Sheridan	...	Arnaud

Storyline

Violetta is raised by her grandmother. Her mother Hanna tries to make a living on taking photographs and concentrates on her dreams to become a famous artist. In order to succeed as an artist she doesn't worry about dating men of questionable reputation. Only every now and then her mother visits her daughter but during these occasions it occurs to her that her daughter could be a potential model. She starts exploiting her daughter who by transforming into a kind of Lolita becomes increasingly alienated from other children of her age. At school she is eventually frequently insulted and rejected. Then Mamie dies and Hannah's photographs are about to unequivocally overstep the line of acceptability. Hanna even coerces Violetta mercilessly into cooperation by withholding her food in case she doesn't agree to pose for increasingly daring photographs.

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Plot Keywords:

title directed by female | school | model | f rated | title in title | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [Japan]

Country:

France

Language:

French English Romanian

Release Date:

29 June 2011 (France)

Also Known As:

Az én kicsi hercegnőm

Filming Locations:

Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Seine-Saint-Denis, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Productions Bagheera, France 2 Cinéma, Canal+

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Hanah Giurgiu: Listen, darling. You need to know that fathers are a major handicap of nature, OK?

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Connections

Referenced in La grande librairie: Episode #8.2 (2015)

User Reviews

Art imitates Life, with a touch of Fassbinder...

"My Little Princess", Eva Ionesco's debut film explores the intense relationship between mother & daughter. Although, initially it may sound like a cinematic cliché to go over family dynamics once again, the film offers us a double controversy:

The first being the relationship itself and the fact that the mother (played beautifully by Isabelle Huppert) takes erotic/pornographic photos of her under-aged daughter(Anamaria Vartolomei) and sells them. The second being that these very events happened in the director's actual life and caused a huge spark in France.

The narration explores how these dynamics came to be about and their ultimate unraveling. Aesthetically, the film borrows a lot from R.W Fassbinder, particularly his BDR trilogy and his collaboration with Hanna Schygulla. Huppert's appearance and beautiful designer gowns (most notably Yves Saint-Laurent) pays homage to the 30s and several references have been made to Marlene Dietrich. The problematic of the working woman struggling to survive in a ruthless world has been explored by the German director back then and is repeated by Ionesco today, with emphasis on child abuse.

Also, Huppert's acting never disappoints but Vartolomei was surprisingly brilliant. Her very young age and the salacious material of the text did not deter this great talent from the intense performance she gave. The latter is indeed a gentle reminder of Brook Shields' days in "Pretty Baby" & "The Blue Lagoon".

To sum up, French films are getting more and more controversial, although I had originally expected a gem out of the "New French Extremity" to be included in the Semaine De La Critique De Cannes, this interesting piece of work is satisfying enough.