Jouer Ponette

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In 1996, four-year-old Victoire Thivisol was for many the surprise winner of the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival for her leading role in Jacques Doillon’s Ponette. How could an infant run off with this award? The documentary Playing Ponette shows how patiently Doillon worked with her, from the first disastrous day of shooting up to the triumph in Venice. Playing Ponette consists almost entirely of material that was filmed with the black-and-white camera of the video assist on the set of Ponette. The quality is not up to much, but in all that raw material - rehearsals, several takes and footage in between the shots - we can discern a meditation about the mystery of acting. One moment Thivisol is romping playfully on the set, less than a minute later she is highly concentrated and embodies very convincingly the role of the girl who has to learn to cope with the recent death of her mother, while she doesn’t understand the concept of death.