Madeline

Madeline (1998) is a family film you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer from Ludwig Bemelmans' beloved illustrated book series. Hatty Jones plays the irrepressible Madeline — the smallest girl at a Paris boarding school who somehow always ends up at the centre of everything.

When the school's patron dies, her cold-hearted heir moves to sell the property and scatter the girls. Madeline refuses to accept it. Alongside that battle comes a new complication: Pepito, the Spanish ambassador's son next door, who starts out a pest and quickly becomes something more. Frances McDormand plays the long-suffering Miss Clavel with complete sincerity — no winking at the audience, just a nun doing her best with an unusually eventful ward.

Shot on location in Paris, the film earns its setting. The streets and rooftops feel like Bemelmans' watercolours given three dimensions, which is exactly what readers of the books come hoping for. Stream Madeline (1998) online on iFILM.