In the solitude, I felt the liberty you speak of. But I also felt your absence.

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...

#5 : Portrait De La Jeune Fille En Feu (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire)

Period romance that became a banner for lesbian representation on film, and the apotheosis of the “female gaze”. An artist and her subject – a noblewoman about to get married – develop an intensely erotic connection in a film that discusses art, desire and obsession.

So - top 5.  Surely I must have seen this one, right?  Err, well - I've heard of it and I know a lot of people absolutely loved it, but I've not actually seen it - until now.  And do you know what?  I think we might be in line for YET ANOTHER female-lead film.  Outrageous!!  I'm expecting some gorgeous visuals in this - and the apotheosis of the "female gaze", obviously.  Do you think anyone actually uses the word apotheosis in their everyday life?!?  Other than Guardian journalists, that is...

Anyways, within the first five minutes of the film we're obviously in for a visual feast - the light involved is amazing and must have required a lot of waiting around just to get the required shots.  There's a real portraiture feel to a lot of the shots - I suspect this is going to look wonderful.  At which point, a shot of a naked woman smoking a pipe in front of an open fire arrives to confirm this - there's something you don't see every day!

So your artist (Marianne) has arrived on an island to paint your woman (Héloise), but there's obviously some intrigue surrounding matters which is set up nicely in a couple of conversations - which didn't feel forced, so it was well done.  For various reasons, the portrait must be done stealthily - and you get the suspicion that painting isn't going to be the only stealthy business going on in this film.  And yeah, that's true but it's not only the case around the inevitable love affair - although it would be lying to claim this film has an abundance of plot.  I won't go into detail about the story but I will say it has a very nice ending - both what you expect and not what you expect, with a couple of very nice touches (which I'm glad I watched the film closely enough to catch).  And boy do they hold that final shot for a very, very long time.

As previously mentioned, this is a BEAUTIFUL film with sumptuous (and there's a word you don't often get to use) visuals - lovely scenery with vibrant colours.  The use of light is particularly impressive throughout to create both a claustrophobic and liberating experience when required.  And the section where she is literally a lady on fire is a highpoint - so beautifully shot.  The period details also deserve a mention as being done well - but given that most of the film is set in the house or outside on a deserted island it's not the film-making challenge that it could have been.  But those costumes though - I would not have made a good eighteenth century lady, I can tell you (now there's a mental image for you to try and shake off all day)

It's a very skilfully written film, with a clever script with multiple layers of meaning throughout around portraiture, philosophy and society.  It feels like an adapted screenplay but isn't (which is a compliment in my book) - it was an original screenplay written by Céline Sciamma, the film's director.  As well as the intelligent dialogue, it's also not afraid to keep quiet - there are lots of silent meaningful gazes throughout the film.  And I'd have to say that for a two hour long film with a lot of meaningful silences in it and not a lot of actual plot, the time passed surprisingly quickly.

The painting scenes are done well - building up the portrait at the same time as we're building up a view of the subject's personality (apparently the film's artist spent 16 hours a day painting whilst on set)  There is also some interesting discussion about the philosophy of portraits - particularly within the strictures of society at the time.  Overall, there's a lot of subtext to this film that I barely noticed (let alone understood) so I'm certain there was a whole load more I missed entirely.  I can imagine a lot of people spending a lot of time unpicking it all - I may well check some of it out and revisit the film at some point to make myself go "ahhhh - I missed that, didn't I?"

The two lead actresses do a great job throughout, gradually building up the relationship as the film progresses.  Adèle Haenel as Héloise just does a better job for me in depicting the anger and frustration at the confines of her situation and her gradual change as the film progresses, but Noémie Merlant as Marianne also deserves huge congratulations for her part in making the relationship so believable.  Luàna Bajrami as Sophie (the maid) also plays her role well experiencing a different kind of confinement at the other end of the social spectrum.

As with the previous three films, this film was both written and directed by a woman and for all of them, the writing has greatly benefited from the female viewpoint (for me).  I think this one can probably argue it has benefited the most because it's hard to imagine a man writing this - some might even say it was the apotheosis of the female gaze.  I don't feel I can comment as to whether it either is or deserves to be a banner for lesbian representation on film but I do feel it did a good job in depicting a sense of the intimacy between the two leads.  It's possibly slightly rushed, but I can see the argument that was required within the confines of the story so I can let her off - I'm sure she'll consider my comments carefully though!

Overall, this is the sort of arthouse film they use to make a lot of which I would have gone to watch in the local independent cinema when I was at uni.  It doesn't feel like you see so many of them these days - or maybe I just don't watch them as much as I used to.  Either way, it was a pleasure to lose myself in it and I really enjoyed it, with it having a fine story which is beautifully told and shot.  It won't be a film for everyone - I can quite understand any complaints of "too slow" or "not enough explosions" but, and this may surprise some people, not every film needs explosions (just most of them, obviously).  And it does have someone catching fire, at least (although - spoiler alert - there's not a lot of fire involved).

At the time of writing, the film is available to rent on most of the usual channels (and it's only 99p on Amazon) - if you like your cinema to be intelligent and look beautiful then you need look no further.

#6 - Another fine film
#4 - A hard-hitting documentary