#I forgot how to use language

[thexfridax]

Time loop: Twin sisters Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz as mother and daughter in ‘Petite Maman’ © Alamode Film

Interview with Céline Sciamma:

“Alliances are extremely important”

An interview with French director Céline Sciamma about her new film ‘Petite Maman’ and the power of women.

By Susanne Lintl, kurier.at, 17.03.2022

[T]ranslated by @thexfridax

Whenever a French film succeeded in the past couple of years, it was very likely that she was involved in it: Céline Sciamma, born in 1978, does not only write excellent screenplays (among others for Jacques Audiard’s great suburban documentary[sic] ‘Les Olympiades’ or for André Téchinè’s ‘Quand on a 17 ans’); with her own films, she’s also become one of the most important voices in the European auteur cinema in the past 15 years. In her new film ‘Petite Maman – When we were children’ (coming to cinemas as of Friday), the follow-up to her multi-award winning female drama ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, the staunch feminist and Lesbian (she was in a relationship with Adèle Haenel for a long time) goes on a tender journey of childhood. At the house of her recently deceased grandmother, an 8-year old girl meets her mother who happens to be of the same age, and finally begins to truly understand her through joint talks and activities.

“It was my idea that a child meets a young version of her mother. Children are a good topic in cinema, because they are precise observers. Vital analysts of their environment and of course of their parents. In a certain way, it makes you come alive, when you observe them. Children are curious and have their own perspective of the world. Instinctively, you think about your own life, your own experiences as a child,” says Sciamma in the interview with the KURIER[.] Of course, she’s borrowed from her own childhood: “There were many connections. First of all, I made the film in the city, where I came from, in Cergy-Pontoise. The house and the rooms are based on my grandmother’s house, which I remember very well. It’s made a lasting impression on me, because I felt comfortable at her place. Grandmothers are key figures for children, especially for girls. When they die, it’s a turning point, a terrible break.”

Céline Sciamma, renowned French screenwriter and director © APA/AFP/JOEL SAGET

Have you also built tree houses as a young girl? - “Yes, I loved doing that. We have also filmed in the woods, where I played as a child.”

In ‘Petite Maman’, Nelly and Marion grapple with reality while building tree houses or playing together, thus getting to know each other. The encounter with the past and her mother’s 8-year old self, makes the present clearer for Nelly. She understands why her mother often feels so sad. “She suddenly sees [T: cue KT Tunstall] her own history through a new lense,” according to Sciamma. A touching scene, where Nelly tries to dispel her mother’s fear before a major surgery, knowing full well that she will get through it: “Everything will be fine”.

Céline Sciamma likes films with and about young people, coming-of-age films that tell the stories of childhood, its loss during adolescence and how this leads to disorientation. ‘Water Lilies’ or ‘Tomboy’ are about this difficult search for identity. Her heroes are always women – they have shaped her, rarely disappointed her, and supported her during difficult times.

Building a tree house with your own child-mother: ‘Petite Maman’ © Alamode Film

“When I look back, then I see that alliances with women were extremely important for me. Alliances that I forged right at the beginning of my journey. With people, who are still present in my life. Especially with my producer Bénédicte Couvreur, who I knew since my film studies. You have to know who to rely on, otherwise you won’t make it.”

Sciamma is one of the initiators of Collectif 50/50, a feminist collective, which aims at promoting gender equality as well as sexual and gender diversity in cinema and audiovisual media. “A powerful alliance often doesn’t look very mighty, but it doesn’t matter. Stick together and believe in your generation, then we are strong. That’s what I want to tell women”.

Next, Sciamma would like to do “something international”. A film, which is not based in France. “I need to try something new. Experiment. Try out something different”. Sciamma hints at the direction this may go. She is an ardent admirer of the Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki, [of whom she says] in the US film magazine ‘Little White Lies’:

“I love his masterpieces like ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ or ‘Spirited Away’. It would be wonderful if I could make a film like that”. ‘Ma vie de Courgette’, for which I wrote the screenplay, was already an animated film”.

To better understand your own mother: ‘Petite Maman’ © Alamode Film

[thatmintleaf]

Starting to learn a new language from zero feels so silly

What do you mean I don't know how to say how old I am?? How is it I never remember which word is "what" and which is "where"?? I learnt how to say "a little" but a little of what?

[torahtot]

ok ive had enough of queering judaism. can we start judaizing queerness now. or something

[felidthing]

oh the flowers! smell so sweet I wish that I want to be a flower too oh hello little bird! it must be spring!

poem i wrote april 27th 2008

[vickyvicarious]

Yes, when Dracula grabs Jonathan's hand in May, Jonathan says that they we "cold as ice"

The instant, however, that I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as ice—more like the hand of a dead than a living man.

+

We men are all in a fever of excitement, except Harker, who is calm; his hands are cold as ice, and an hour ago I found him whetting the edge of the great Ghoorka knife which he now always carries with him. It will be a bad lookout for the Count if the edge of that "Kukri" ever touches his throat, driven by that stern, ice-cold hand!

BAM, there it is!

[kittycowboy]

Jamaican patois my beloved U are suxh a helpful referwnce

[agentmika]

2024

GO TO THE LIBRARY MORE.

SEE MOVIES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE IN UNUSUAL AND UNIQUE WAYS WHENEVER AND WHEREVER POSSIBLE.

LEARN THE WORD BUTTERFLY IN AS MANY NEW LANGUAGES AS YOU CAN.

WRITE. EVEN IF IT'S BAD. ESPECIALLY IF IT'S BAD.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND. NO FEELING IS FOREVER.

LEARN HOW TO WIELD A BASTARD SWORD.

SEND MORE POSTCARDS.

BE KIND. DO IT WEIRD. DO IT SCARED. DO IT ALL.

[woolandcoffee]

I'm currently rereading Ronald Hutton's "Triumph of the Moon" for the first time in years and this time around I'm particularly struck by how thoroughly, and relatively early on in the text, it disproves several of the prominent disinfo claims still rampant in modern paganism. It's a crime that this book isn't as readily available to beginners as, say, Silver Ravenwolf books. This should absolutely be required reading.

[moraygrotto]

Don’t be shy share the right term 👀

"burping me" in the present tense 👊😔 haven't plundered the results too far yet but they are vastly better than "burped [pronoun]" past tense

[fvckw4d]

The concept of queerbaiting annoys me. I was told that it refers to a work of fiction pretending to cater to a queer audience but then pulling back from it to avoid alienating homophobes, which is an incredibly specific thing. But a lot of people seem to think that it instead means "any time there's any gay subtex, metaphor, or ambiguity" or "whenever something from 1995-2012 was being a normal amount of homophobic for the era."

[lulughoul]

You asked if I could draw Creepeggy sometime, so here's a little sketch for you. Coup de foudre and all that...

OH. MY GOOOOD. THIS MADE MY DAY THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH 🥺💖😭

[discoshhtick]

Going to keep indigenous in my bio especially if it makes idiots like that this mad

[plasky]

I wish I could sometimes transmit my brain wave emotions to other people because like I may not act like I love a certain thing but I really love it it's just the English Language can't express it

[aroacehanzawa]

speaking of last reblog i've noticed sometimes i will say thing that will have people ask me what my pronouns are or otherwise subtly try to figure out what is my Deal with gender and i have to specify that i am a but a cis woman. except that i am also a boy detective (edogawa ranpo kinnie) and mad scientist (victor frankenstein kinnie). hope this helps

[linabirb]

i saw what you reblogged about chinese characters and. i almost cried. how did you pass. are you okay. do you need an ambulance.

I. I HAD SUFFERED SO MUCH. to be honest i'm not one of the best students in my class when it comes to chinese, mostly bc i skipped some classes, usually bc of health problems WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT HOW I SKIPPED ONE CLASS TO GO AND WATCH MAHIRU'S MV and uh. y e a h i had to do more assignments than other students so that i could get more grades and all of that.

idk if i've mentioned this before but our chinese prof actually wanted to have like. summer classes with us, like, not officially, but you know, she was just afraid of us forgetting everything because of the summer break and was like "so yeah, if anyone wants to go somewhere and just sit there and continue learning chinese, we can do that" AND I REFUSED. honestly, i love this prof a lot and she's very funny and her classes are interesting, but. please. i need a break. also that one classmate who annoys me the most you know the one btw she actually started acting even worse i just didn't tell you anything was the first one to agree to have those summer classes and she even continues to ask us if anyone will go with her AND NO!! LEAVE US ALONE!! (also sorry can i rant for a bit. so like our prof told us that we can pick any place, since those classes are not official and we don't have to actually go to uni, so this girl ORGANIZED LITERALLY EVERYTHING WITHOUT ASKING US and went "okay that's it we're going to the cat cafe i work at. that's where we'll have those classes. that's it." and when one of my classmates was like ".. but what if someone is allergic to cats" she just. stood there. istg if i hear her say something like "oh i just act like that because i have a hyperfixation and my hyperfixation is cats <3" LIKE?? STILL?? PLEASE THINK ABOUT OTHERS TOO???)

and also. my family keeps saying that it's okay i'm just a freshman (well not anymore but still) it's normal that i'm kinda bad at chinese but also. i spent like six or seven years learning japanese and i still don't know it that well so ;w; i just wish they would stop saying things like "oh you're so good at languages and all that stuff" like. i'm not even that good at english. come on. and also we actually had one class with our seniors AND THEY WERE JUST AS BAD AS US. i even was like "b-but i thought that if we spend more time learning, we'll get better-" and one of those students was like "WE THOUGHT SO TOO GIRL 😭" i will never forget how one of those seniors was like "hey btw i think i'm getting better at chinese" and our prof was like "really? :) can you write this character for me then" and he did it while looking so confident and i thought what he wrote looked really pretty and then the prof was like "please go back to your seat before i kill you right where you stand :D"

[idkimnotreal]

the culture shock when you learn a word in english first (or it's more common in english) and then start using it in your own language is entirely different.

for example. i recently started renting an apartment to live on my own. i told my mother a few days back that i live in a suburb. there is such a word in portuguese (subúrbio. soo-boo-r-bee-oo. with either spanish, carioca or american r, depends on the town). i was thinking like the american suburbs - or just a general suburb, that is, a part of the city where well off families live and where it's usually calm and pleasant (although there are no american style suburbs in brazil and i live near a commercial centre in a building). but she was briefly shocked when i said i live in a suburb, blurted back "suburb?!?!?", and when i confirmed she let it go probably because she understood i didn't mean what she had, well, understood.

but that got me thinking and i knew just from her reaction that suburb in brazil is something else and probably linked to poverty. i had had no contact with the portuguese version of the word before save for maybe dubbed hollywood films. so everything i had to derive meaning from was my mom's reaction to me saying the word.

then i googled it and the actual meaning was the most brazilian thing possible. so suburb was used in contrast to the city centre, where wealthy families usually live. since brazil is famously one of the most unequal countries in wealth distribution on earth, parts of the city that are not the city centre could only mean one thing - where poor people live. because you have rich people in brazil and then poor people. so if you're not rich... you're poor. hence suburbs are poor neighbourhoods.

i don't think that's true anymore. we've become a middle income country in the last decades with considerable progress (that has stalled nonetheless). i don't think i live in the city centre, i live near enough, but not in it. but i also don't live in a poor neighbourhood. the only word left is suburb. a well off neighbourhood that's not the city centre or immediately next to it.

but this was an interesting one. a word with different meanings in english and portuguese whose portuguese meaning is loaded with vital context about brazil. it obviously couldn't be any different and I'm surprised that i failed to intuit that on my own.