Petite Reine (Little Queen) [2024]

-Written by Michelle Vorob.

2024 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW!

Petite Reine, also known as Little Queen, is a French language short film by Julien Guetta about a mother-daughter relationship. Stephanie (Aude Pepin) is an upbeat single mother who loves to share everything with her teen daughter, Lena (Louise Labeque). As we quickly see, while Stephanie wants to be the fun mom, her daughter feels stifled and wants to step out from her mother's shadow.

Petite Reine opens in a hotel bathroom, closely focused on the mirror image of a lovely woman getting ready for the evening. She's happy, confident, finishing her makeup and styling. As she proceeds, it progresses from classic to flashy. Perhaps she's going to a club or party. The woman finishes getting ready, leaves the hotel room, tidying as she goes and places the supplies on a maid service cart in the hallway. We learn she works there as a maid and is leaving for the night. This is our first glimpse of Stephanie. Excited, she goes outside to meet up with her teen daughter Lena and Lena's friend, Kali (Rita Benmannana). As it turns out, they're going to a concert and the girls are a bit embarrassed, because Stephanie is dressed in a very youthful and flashy style, more so than the teens.

They begin their trip to the concert and Stephanie is in full concert mode. She wants to sing along to music, she wants to talk to the girls, she wants to have some fun. The girls are uncomfortable. Stephanie is trying too hard. Lena wants her mom to tone it down. The dynamic was so natural and so wonderful; the embarrassment Lena felt; the awkwardness Kali felt; the frustration Stephanie felt, wanting to be “one of the girls”. While a lot took place during the trip to the concert, without spoiling every detail for you, the end result was a painfully real feeling of confrontation between a daughter who wants to grow up and a mother who doesn't want to let go. 

Petite Reine is wonderfully filmed and acted; it felt natural, believable, relatable. Regardless of your own personal relationship with your parents, Petite Reine puts you right in that car with a mother and daughter who have become stuck in their dynamic. 

It's easy to feel for Stephanie; maybe she's the “Little Queen”–a pretty, once popular girl, who got pregnant young and had to grow up fast; someone who is just beginning to realize her youth is gone. It's easy to feel for Lena; maybe she's the “Little Queen”–an only child, doted on by her fun-loving, young mother, until she's grown to the point that her fun, young mother becomes a wannabe friend that is imposing on her life.

What I gleaned from Petite Reine is that both mother and daughter are “Queens”, as they learn to see each other as their own person, with their own failings and desires and an unconditional love for each other that is unbreakable. 

Directed by Julien Guetta.

Written by Julien Guetta and Marianne Rapegno.

Starring Aude Pepin, Louise Labeque, Rita Benmannana, Satya Dusaugey, Ludovic Berthillot and Charlotte Lacoste.

8.5/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING