The final shot of Céline Sciamma’s portrait of a burning woman is overwhelming. It’s a highlight of the last two hours, but it’s more than the end of a movie. It’s a whole life cycle of a love affair expressed in the face of actress Adèle Haenel, amplifying the emotional ups and downs that we have just seen, how fast and intense they are played in this single setting. It is incredible and a testament to how well sciammas film is done. It is exciting to race through the trees, but the size of the film does not decrease until it retreats to show the entire forest.
At the end of the 18th century Haenel plays Héloïse, a young woman engaged to her deceased sister’s ex-fiancé. It is expected that she sends a portrait to her future husband before the wedding, but she refuses. Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is hired to finish a painting without Héloïse’s knowledge. Héloïse’s mother asks Marianne to pose as a companion and to paint the portrait of her daughter in secret.
Marianne’s mission requires her to observe Héloïse as closely as possible and to remember her features and mannerisms so well that she can reproduce them without reference. This visual familiarity also becomes emotional as the women open each other during their time together. Sciamma brought Marianne’s illusion to light early; What makes the burgeoning love between Marianne and Héloïse bittersweet is not this initial pretext, but the inevitability of the end of their relationship.
Héloïse (Haenel) on fire. Photo: Neon
Although both women are free-spirited, their apparent autonomy has their limits as the day of Héloïse’s wedding approaches. Their affair is only possible because Héloïse’s family estate is located on an island separate from the rest of the world. Marianne and Héloïse are sitting in a capsule, allowed to create art and fall in love who they want, if only for a moment. The question of whether the portrait will be finished is not the driving force of the film. Due to the time they live in, the relationship between Marianne and Héloïse is doomed to fail, and both know it.
As they get into the routine of daily walks around the estate, Sciamma uses Marianne’s duty to watch Héloïse as a window for the audience to get to know the characters as well. Through Marianne we see the slightest change in Héloïse’s behavior and every little gesture. However, this observation is not one-sided. Héloïse also watches Marianne, and the two are often framed side by side, or emerge from each other’s silhouettes as if they were a single figure split into two.
Two figures on the water. Photo: Neon
Sciamma and cinematographer Claire Mathon make every image of the film equally beautiful and dive scenes in chiaroscuro at night – utter darkness with occasional bright flickering of gold and amber – and make colors jump out of the fabric of Marianne and Héloïse during the daytime clothes to crack the surrounding ones Waves. Each image could easily stand alone, and they are clearly meant to represent what Marianne and Héloïse see, rather than projecting the desires of others.
There are no men on the island, though the pressure of patriarchal society is inevitable and Sciamma and Mathon limit the masculine view of the purpose of Marianne’s painting. As soon as Héloïse’s mother leaves the island to give Marianne and Héloïse space to complete the portrait, they break down their borders, eat and talk to housemaid Sophie (Luàna Bajrami) on equal footing instead of following the expected norms. They live their lives for a short time as they please, and fall in love with no one except their own.
As their relationship progresses, they return again and again to the story of Orpheus, who lost his love Eurydice after disobeying the order not to look at them until they fled the underworld together. Héloïse says she understands him. He chose a moment of certainty in that look back on his lover over an endless uncertainty, just as Héloïse and Marianne choose an affair they know to end. Sciamma senses the bittersweet heartbreak in the final shot of the movie and moves closer to Héloïse’s face as she remembers her seeing her Eurydice disappeared.
The portrait of a burning lady is now in theaters.
