I wasn’t exactly expecting a big crowd to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Winner of the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, we’re talking about a French arthouse movie about two young women who fell in love when one was commissioned to paint the other’s portrait at some unknown time in the 18th century. So, really, this wasn’t going to be a big crowd pleaser. And I was one of three sitting in my screening, at least when the movie started.
Point is, one guy got up and left around halfway through. Maybe the movie wasn’t what he thought it was.
What is this movie? Well, after a brief opening when painter/art teacher Marianne (Noemie Merlant) is seen giving a class full of women lessons on painting, we cut to a few years earlier. She’s on a boat, headed for an island off the coast of Brittany. The Countess there (Valeria Golino) wants Marianne to paint her daughter’s portrait. Heloise (Adele Haenel) is sort of engaged to a Milanese gentleman. A previous engagement for Heloise’s sister ended when that girl jumped to her death unexpectedly. Heloise was then recalled from a convent and told she was to get married instead, allowing both mother and daughter to move to the more interesting Milan.
However, Heloise wouldn’t pose for a previous painter, so Marianne’s job, at least to start, is an act of subterfuge. She’s to pretend the Countess hired her to accompany Heloise on daily walks, study the unwilling fiancee’s face, and then finish a portrait to finalize the engagement. Heloise is understandably distant and stand-offish, but over time, the most unexpected thing happens: Heloise and Marianne fall in love.
This was one beautiful movie. Anyone looking for some sort of erotic affair between two women will be disappointed. Much of the sexual stuff happens off camera (but not all of it), and it’s more about how these two women connect. Haenel has incredibly expressive blue eyes, flashing anger, disgust, concern, wariness, and eventually affection, particularly in scenes where she doesn’t say much. By contrast, Merlant’s face is a lot more neutral for much of the film, appropriate for someone observing the world around her., especially the subject of her work.
Now, the relationship is doomed from the start. This is 18th century France, Heloise is an aristocrat’s daughter, and Marianne is just a painter, and that’s not getting into the same-sex aspect of their relationship. But the film doesn’t necessarily play their eventual separation as heartbreaking, but still sad. It’s a touching relationship, one that means a lot to both women, and even if they can’t stay together in the long run, they can still make the most of what time they have.
Writer/director Celine Sciamma populated her movie with mostly women and lots of bright colors, perfect for a love story between two women. There are few men in the cast, with the island seemingly a women’s bastion. Heloise’s intended will never come to see her there, and the men who drop Marianne off on the island barely come off the beach. The only other company the two women have in the Countess’s house is a young maid, and while the Countess is away on personal business, the three wander down to some kind of all-female celebration. The only real male presence is a baby of undetermined gender, and when a man finally does come to the island, it does so about the time the women must part anyway.
Really, this was a beautiful movie. The shot composition looked like they could have been painting themselves, particularly a reoccurring vision Marianne has of Heloise in a white dress. The final shot drives home just how much the relationship works, as Haenel silently emotes while Merlant watches. I was glad to see this one.
Grade: A
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