Le petit prince a dit

Films about children dying are very tricky ones. All too often they ended up being much too sentimental and melodramatic. Two films that avoided this pitfall are "Tonio" (2016, Paula van der Oest) and "Le petit prince a dit" (1992, Christine Pascal).

Tonio dies in a traffic accident at the beginning of the film. Little Violette in "Le petit prince a dit" is about to die due to a brain tumor at the end of the film. More important is the different effects that the (impending) death of their child has on the parents. In "Le petit prince a dit" the marriage of the parents of Violette is effectively over at the beginning of the film but their sorrow (and the manipulations of Violette herself) brings them together again. In "Tonio" on the other side the proces of mourning forms a danger for their marriage.

When the father of Violette learns that his daughter is incurably ill, he lterally graps her from the treatment table. This touches the question of quantity of life (lifespan) versus quality of life, but transforms the movie also in a roadmovie. This roadmovie reaches an almost metaphysical peak on the mountains between Switzerland and Italy.

Especially in the second half of the film the music is very beautiful. IMDB did not mention a soundtrack, so it took some effort to find out that te music was written by Bruno Coulais.

The end, when the sleeping Violette becomes ever more overexposed and so slowly fades away, is touching.