Also known as: Little Darling, Little Darlin’
Genre: black comedy
Director: Anne Villacèque
Release: 2000
Studio: Arte France Cinéma, Tadrart Films, StudioCanal, GAN Cinema Foundation, Ognon Pictures
Rating: –
MBiS score: 7.9/10
He May Be A Creep But He’s Mine, All Mine
At 30, Sybille (Corinne Debonnière) works in a bank and lives with her parents (Patrick Préjean and Laurence Février) but, ever a romantic, she hasn’t stopped looking for Prince Charming. While coming home one night, she meets a (not very) tall (but definitely) dark stranger named Victor (Jonathan Zaccaï). Could he be the one?
I don’t consider myself a diviner − especially not in matters of the heart − and I feel much safer writing about things that are known or verifiable. That being said, I can confirm one crucial fact about PETITE CHÉRIE: love will reach Sybille’s doorstep… only it won’t be the stuff of dreams and romance novels. In fact, her every effort to attain happiness will yield surreal or disturbingly funny results. And that’s what I like best about this movie… it refuses to play nice, even with a subject as sensitive as a woman’s quest for love. What Anne Villacèque has achieved here, with the help of co-screenwriter Élisabeth Barrière-Marquet, is neither tender nor mawkish. PETITE CHÉRIE gives no quarter.
Formally speaking, Anne Villacèque’s film is modest but accomplished. It boasts adequate production values and a credible cast led by Corinne Debonnière as the quiet but determined Sybille, Laurence Février as her bubbly (!) mother and Jonathan Zaccaï as the prize. For now, that’s all you really need to know.
Of course, I have no way of knowing if you’ll watch this film − given my poor predictive powers − but I’m sure you won’t cry your eyes out if you do. PETITE CHÉRIE is a movie played for laughs… that may also keep you awake a little longer than usual at bedtime.
MBiS
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