Zelly and Me

I watched this movie once, but to me it's so sad. A strict grandmother who's only duty is to prevent her grandaughter from being rebellious like the girl's mother, never seems to provide enough love for her. When Zelly notices Phoebe burnt herself, CoCo fires Zelly, and pushes Phoebe into her parents bedroom because "she's now a big girl" and throws Phoebe's toys including her Teddy bear away. Zelly tries to rescue Phoebe, but at the last minute she and her boyfriend who attempted to kidnap knows it's wrong, and sends her back. Phoebe, must face the fact of living with her strict Grandmother, and with a pair of white socks makes a doll for herself. I do see some good parts in this movie, but it's way too sad for me to watch.

I watched this movie in 1990 and I was just 14 years old but through the years this movie enters my mind. I tried to find it once before but couldn't find it. I'm curious to see it now that I am older. It was always a sad movie to me.

This movie has been a favorite of mine for a long time, but I don't know anybody else who likes it. What appeals to me is that the story is so simple but still so deep.

It is one of the biggest drama I have ever seen, but still, nobody dies, no ship goes down and so on. The drama is just the feelings of a little girl and a grandmother who "loves" her too much.

The film is very well acted (even Lynch is good) and the script is superb. There is an interesting reference in the film to Joan of Arc (the girl sees her self as Joan). In fact, the movie could easily bee seen as a Joan of Arc film.

Zelly and Me is a very good movie about a little girl's relationship with her grandmother. Isabella Rossellini is wonderful as usual as the girl's nanny, Zelly. David Lynch also is excellent as Willie, Zelly's boyfriend. With the relationships between the four main characters, the movie manages to intelligently portray real motivations in why people act the way they do when it might seem more logical to act in some other way. Zelly and Me is at times touching, but not overly sentimental. Everyone in the cast gives convincing, realistic performances.

Small movies can sometimes yield large pleasures, but to appreciate this modest, independently produced drama you'll have to first forgive a lot of its shortcomings. The film is more well-meant than well-made, following the battle of wills between a dictatorial grandmother and a benevolent French governess over the welfare of a precocious, orphaned poor-little-rich-girl. But it's an unfair competition from the start: Grandma Coco can only express her affection for young Phoebe through jealous tantrums and cruel discipline, while governess Zelly (short for Mademoiselle) is all compassion and tenderness (and very little else).

The film is a peculiar mixture of lukewarm nostalgia and cold, upper-crust alienation, showing more forbearance than might otherwise be expected from a story about child abuse. But the meager budget isn't enough to convincingly recreate the (somewhat arbitrary) 1958 setting, effectively isolating the action in a dramatic vacuum. A little more background detail might have made it more involving.

Look for cult director David Lynch in a small role, alongside his then girlfriend Isabella Rossellini.