Portrait of a Lady on Fire
May. 27th, 2020 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherPortrait of a Lady on Fire - 2019 - on Hulu in US
French with English subtitles
Wow! This film is incredible. Marianne, an artist hired to paint a portrait, arrives at a wind-blown island. Her subject is Héloïse, a young woman soon to be married; the portrait is for her betrothed. Héloïse is resistant to marriage, and thus will not sit for a portrait. Thus Marianne pretends to be a walking companion, and studies her subject covertly, until she can finish the painting.
There are just 4 main characters, all of them women; men hardly speak in the film. There is little dialog: this film is very visual, with long shots of womens' faces. The camera holds us in the scene, makes us wait, encourages us to look with Marianne's eyes.
Spoilers below the cut....
Eventually Marianne and Héloïse fall in love. We know from the first scene how it will end, but the film is about this time they have together.
I deeply appreciated that the lying part of the plot was resolved fairly early, before the two women get together. Marianne confesses directly, and decides to re-do the painting with Héloïse's consent.
If ever there were a non-male gaze movie, it is here. The two women and the maid, Sophie, exist for a time in an all-women world. They prepare meals together, play cards, read and talk. Sophie needs an abortion and they help her get one (this is very sensitively handled). There is very little nudity but we see armpit hair. There is a touch of otherworldly magic.
It is a queer movie without a happy ending, though it is not entirely sad either. It is gorgeous and moving.
Content notes: brief discussion of a suicide, drug use (tobacco and unspecified other drug).
French with English subtitles
Wow! This film is incredible. Marianne, an artist hired to paint a portrait, arrives at a wind-blown island. Her subject is Héloïse, a young woman soon to be married; the portrait is for her betrothed. Héloïse is resistant to marriage, and thus will not sit for a portrait. Thus Marianne pretends to be a walking companion, and studies her subject covertly, until she can finish the painting.
There are just 4 main characters, all of them women; men hardly speak in the film. There is little dialog: this film is very visual, with long shots of womens' faces. The camera holds us in the scene, makes us wait, encourages us to look with Marianne's eyes.
Spoilers below the cut....
Eventually Marianne and Héloïse fall in love. We know from the first scene how it will end, but the film is about this time they have together.
I deeply appreciated that the lying part of the plot was resolved fairly early, before the two women get together. Marianne confesses directly, and decides to re-do the painting with Héloïse's consent.
If ever there were a non-male gaze movie, it is here. The two women and the maid, Sophie, exist for a time in an all-women world. They prepare meals together, play cards, read and talk. Sophie needs an abortion and they help her get one (this is very sensitively handled). There is very little nudity but we see armpit hair. There is a touch of otherworldly magic.
It is a queer movie without a happy ending, though it is not entirely sad either. It is gorgeous and moving.
Content notes: brief discussion of a suicide, drug use (tobacco and unspecified other drug).
