Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

DON'T REGRET. REMEMBER.

Watched (and reviewed) Sep 18, 2024

jack’s review published on Letterboxd:

Do the sands long for the waves that reach them? Do the rocks still remember the winds that shaped them? When you cry out for warmth, are you afraid to be seen? Like crashing waves and colliding winds that come out silent, your love is secret, and your love is violent. Do you know me as you need me? Is this limerence or is this love? Is it your sight that sets me ablaze or am I alone when in your gaze? Not above or below, I see you as you see me, heart to beating heart and face to beautiful face.

Don’t regret. Remember.

Late into the eighteenth century, on an isolated island in Brittany, the northernmost region of France, Héloïse is a reluctant bride-to-be, who has recently left the convent and is expected to be married off to a nobleman in Milan. Not looking forward to this loss of freedom and unaware that her mother has commissioned a new painter, Marianne, to prepare her portrait for the supposed suitor, Héloïse seeks to find herself in, and make the most of, the time she has left.

“Not everything is fleeting. Some feelings are deep.”

Before long, intentions have been interrogated, and flames born from sudden embers, have been lit. Hesitantly, the two women examine their perceptions and desires, as together they grow into something more than either was ready for. 

“Do all lovers feel like they’re inventing something?”

Appropriate to its artistic subject, Portrait of a Lady on Fire resembles a Baroque painting with its similar emphasis on rich emotion and fluidity. It’s dissimilar however for a rather reserved approach, focusing on the inherent grandeur and simplicity of emotion, instead of assembling a sense of grandness through excess and intricate complexities.

Perhaps then, it would be more accurate to classify the film as visually similar to art of the Neoclassical period, but they find another, non stylistic, similarity in the recalling of ancient Greek and Roman ideals and stories. Portrait of a Lady on Fire utilizes the story of Orpheus and Eurydice to enhance both its romantic and tragic content and its exploration of the male and female gaze. Throughout the film, the dynamics between the two women change, and as they do, the roles assigned in the parallels reflecting the Greek myth do as well. 

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a film that, no matter what description is used, and no matter what aspect is being described, is unable to avoid the adjective of beautiful and its many synonyms. Beauty isn’t the only constant though, another prevailing adjective throughout is the word dynamic. From its arresting, calculated, cinematography to its intimate and honest mise-en-scène, the film is specifically constructed with the female gaze, or anti-gaze, in mind, regardless of gendered perspective. Even ignoring the identities portrayed, this point of view stays the same. The film is optimized to allow for dynamic characters and verisimilitude rather than fall back on passive devices and flatness through ideas like possession and the tendency to voyeuristically display subjects of narrative. Because of this, Portrait of a Lady on Fire displays and defies the confines of patriarchy both on a technical level and on that of the narrative.

Even in its descent to Hades, I would argue that the film maintains this rebellious spirit by centering itself on hope. I would argue that the film, though tragic, is not quite a tragedy. Instead of focusing on loss, grief, and regret, the defiance of the narrative lived on in the face of tragedy by focusing on love, acceptance, and moving on. The film declares that these fires are not put out and mourned but simply carried close as little flames, small but everlasting.

I feel like I was discussing elements of theory that I’m not really educated on enough to use properly and constantly bouncing back and forth between different ideas before I had finished properly elaborating on them (and this was just way too long) so this was probably confusing or annoying to read, so if you did, sorry about that! Anyway, if you haven’t watched this yet, you totally should. I’m so glad I finally could fill in the five flames (Letterboxd replaces the stars with flames when rating this lol) as I’ve been meaning to watch this in its entirety and with good quality for so long now. Definitely surpassed my expectations!