Readers Request - Portrait of a Lady on Fire

 

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French Cinema has a long and glorious history. After all, one of the earliest filmmakers who pioneered movie magic was a French magician named Georges Méliès, whom some of you may recall portrayed by Sir Ben Kingsly in the Martin Scorsese picture Hugo. One aspect of French Cinema that seems to make it stand out more is how "flexible" it can be with traditional filmmaking guidelines. While stories will generally have a beginning, middle, and end, renowned French director Jean-Luc Godard once stated that they don't have to be in that order. Which has prompted Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright David Mammet to respond with, "...that's why French films are so F-ing boring." While I respectfully disagree with Mr. Mammet, I can understand his position. Most non-American Cinema has different expectations of their audiences. As such, viewing a foreign-language film without proper cultural or historical context can be daunting. Today's film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, while gorgeous in its own right, it will not become a new favorite of mine anytime soon. Not out of dislike for the film, but rather out of personal preference. 

Taking place in the eighteenth-century on a small island in Brittany, the story follows a painter named Marianne (Noémie Merlant), who is preparing to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman named Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). Héloïse is not happy with being pushed into an arranged marriage and protests by refusing to pose for a portrait, causing Marianne to improvise by accompanying Héloïse on her regular walks on the Beach, picking up pieces of her likeness to apply to the painting. Over time, the two women develop a friendship only for it to evolve into passionate love. Having found each other, they must now come to terms with the inevitable truth that their union will only be temporary. 

For the most part, I much appreciated this film. It tackles a few social and feminist issues that I care deeply about, and it does so in a somewhat intriguing way. Although, to be honest, some of its artistic choices did not meld well with me, and I will discuss that in greater detail in a moment. 

Visually, the film is gorgeous. Aside from the French coast's glorious landscape shots and the elegant sets, the film's use of color is staggering. The first thing that stuck out to me was the shade of Blue in the Ocean. It was almost a light and seemingly transparent hue that I can't recall ever seeing before. Things like that stem from the film's stark use of color, as it does its best to replicate the color style found in eighteenth-century paintings. 

Furthermore, this is a film that relies heavily on the performance of the cast. Primarily consisting of only a handful of characters, the vast majority of them women, they all provide remarkable and convicted performances. The chemistry between the two leads is, hands-down, the best aspect of the film. I hope to see both of these talented women again in another movie. 

My only issue with the film is that of personal preference. The overall tone and pacing of the film maintains a deliberately slow and meditative mood, which, while understandable, is not my cup of tea. In my opinion, if you're going to make a film that mainly consists of a handful of characters predominantly driven by dialogue and performance, it should be executed in a manner that creates a sense of motion through camera work and editing. While there is a great deal of camera movement in the film, a lot of it consists of slow pan shots. I'm not saying that the film needed shaky-cam, not at all, but I could not help but feel that the lack of compelling movement caused the film to feel a bit monotone. At least to me. 

This notion gets further exacerbated by the sound design and the lack of score. There are too many moments of silence in this movie. Even when characters talk to each other, there is hardly any atmosphere conveyed in something like simple background sounds, save for the overwhelming roar of the Ocean. I do not doubt that these choices were deliberate and intended to give a specific mood, which I understand; I tend to prefer that there be some sense of motion even in slower stories such as this. I'm not saying the film needed explosions; I am not that dense. I'm just not fond of too much silence in my movies. 

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is an elegant film through and through. It has compelling characters, jaw-dropping visuals, and a relevant narrative. The only reason it will not become my new favorite is purely for personal preferences, which I must emphasize are purely my own and are not intended to be taken as definitive nor dogmatic. While I cannot say I thoroughly enjoyed this film, I can say that I appreciated it. I wholeheartedly recommend you check this one out for yourself. It has a certain je ne sais quoi to it. 

Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you all for reading.