Rent Portrait of a Lady on Fire on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Céline Sciamma
Directed by: Céline Sciamma
Starring: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami
Rated: R
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Plot
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Verdict
This efficiently builds strong characters that carry this story. It unfolds with confidence and poise backed by a strong script that ties everything together. While it would fall into the romance movie genre, it avoids the common tropes that make romance movies so mundane. This movie conveys so much without dialog. It's a movie about a lack of freedom, for women to choose a companion or for women to choose their future. The conclusion captures the essence of the movie so well.
Watch It.
Review
This opens with a student asking her art teacher about a painting before the film jumps back a few years. Marianne (Noémie Merlant) must paint a woman's portrait who doesn't want to be painted as it's part of an arranged marriage. Marianne acts Héloïse's (Adèle Haenel) companion while studying her features and creating sketches in her free time. Marianne must gain Héloïse's confidence just to see her expressions as Héloïse is not happy about the marriage.
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| Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel play Marianne and Héloïse |
Posing as her friend, Marianne soon becomes Héloïse's friend and reveals her ploy. Héloïse is upset, but doesn't like the resulting painting and instead agrees to pose. During the sessions Marianne tells Héloïse how well she knows her expressions and thus what she's thinking. Héloïse turns it around stating that while Marianne studied her, Héloïse studied Marianne. Marianne is embarrassed, unaware she conveyed so much. While I think Marianne would know more based on having studied Héloïse for much longer, it's still a very touching scene.
One neat aspect of this are the two painting of Héloïse. The first painting looks like Héloïse but doesn't really capture her. That's understandable as Marianne had to create it from memory and sketches. The second painting captures Héloïse, with the implication that Marianne's feelings and emotions are laid bare on the canvas.The first painting would have been completely acceptable. Do the two paintings look vastly different or is it just a trick the movie plays on us?
Marianne and Héloïse fall for each other, despite knowing the romance will be short lived. Not only will society not accept it, Héloïse is betrothed. This has a strange element where Marianne has these visions of Héloïse, but it's a representation of Marianne's anxiety. She knows the relationship can't last. That knowledge haunts her.
This includes a story about the Greek legend Orpheus and Eurydice. In the legend Orpheus can escape Hell with his love Orpheus, but only if he doesn't look back at her until they're both out. He looks back before and traps her in Hell. The characters debate why he looked back with Marianne calling it the poet's choice. Orpheus looked back to have one last memory of Eurydice. The way this movie uses this story in the conclusion is powerful. Marianne must leave once the painting is complete, but she can't take Héloïse with her. She's left with one last fleeting memory. It's the conclusion that takes a really good movie and elevates it even higher.
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| Adèle Haenel plays Héloïse |
Marianne saw Héloïse twice after the portrait session. Once in a portrait with her daughter. In the portrait is a reference that only Marianne would know. Héloïse never forgot her. At the same exhibit is Marianne's painting of Orpheus and Eurydice. She's commended for painting the moment Orpheus looked back, the last glance of goodbye, a moment painter's never capture. The painting is powerful to the viewer of the movie, because the moment isn't of Orpheus and Eurydice, it's Marianne and Héloïse. Of course Marianne enters the painting under her father's name, because as a woman she would be rejected.
I can't help but think of Brokeback Mountain, another movie about forbidden love with a conclusion that hits you hard. Despite the characters unable to be together, they never forgot. The memories of their time together lives on.
Having just watched Waiting for the Barbarians, a period piece which was unfortunately quite disappointing, this movie illustrates the problems with that movie. Portrait of a Lady on Fire engages viewers because we know these characters. We know their future, what they want, don't want, and their short term goals. Marianne is focused on completing this painting while Héloïse is clinging to the past. What makes Waiting for the Barbarians so detached is that we don't know the characters. That movie is all dialog. With Marianne and Héloïse we can read their emotions through body language. This movie makes you care.
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