No One Died, YAY!
- Dan
- Mar 29, 2020
- 10 min read
Updated: Apr 2, 2020
Look at the nice poster neon made us! Such a simple but genius way to show what the film is about.
This is a fun one. Actually a good, not so tragic story about women in love. 6/5. Very nice!
Film about gay women, written by a gay woman, directed by a gay woman and one of the actresses is a gay woman; it is all around a gay film. Applause for Céline Sciamma! Also, I would like to point out that Sciamma, the writer and director, and Adèle Haenel, one of the two lead actresses, had a fairly long relationship and broke up just before starting to shoot this film.
We all know that, usually, when we watch a period film there’s going to be an ending where either the women have to marry men, or alternatively they are already married to a man and/or they just die - either way, they never end up together. But hey, this film is not that. At least not entirely. It’s a breath of fresh air! I, personally, am tired of the cheating storyline and the fact that there is always a sad ending. I am not going to lie, this film does seem to have similar twists coming up. However, it’s ending still leaves no bitter taste. Bittersweet is what it may be - but it’s not your usual tragedy.
I’m doing this by my memory and skimming through the film for screenshots and I probably should have watched the film completely again for this review. However I’m trusting that memories haven’t grown sweeter with time. I really wanted to support this film and go see it at the cinema, but I completely forgot! Let’s see what I can remember:
THIS IS SPOILERS ONLY AND NOTHING ELSE.
From the start of the film you can feel the chemistry between the leads of the film: Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant. Haenel plays the aristocrat Héloïse who is promised to an Italian nobleman, Merlant is a young portraitist, Marianne, ordered to paint Hèolïse’s picture. After the two women are left alone for a couple of days their relationship grows deeper and deeper. Sciamma has really put her time and effort into making this film look truly beautiful, I don’t even [really] have anything too sarcastic to say about this - which is unusual. I mean, look at this tension between the women...
The gay is sizzling! The drama, the panache, the absolute revolutionary eye contact - it all reminds me of Carol (2015). Please give us more titillating period gays (well I know there are a few like (The Handmaiden (2016), The Favourite (2018) and so on).
The film starts with Merlant’s character Marianne giving a portrait drawing lesson and one of her students asking about a painting she had done called “Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu” (eng.: portrait of a young girl on fire). This also serves as the film’s original French title. The whole film is one big flashback to previous events.
Marianne takes a boat to enter the island where Héloïse and her mother live. Straight away when she gets inside the mansion, she gets naked and sits on the floor in front of a fireplace. To be fair, there is a reason for it, but we are AT IT right from the start! It is almost as if the film is saying “Look at this beautiful female form” - but not through the male gaze. Also, she is smoking a pipe which, I mean, is kinda hot. Marianne makes friends first with Sophie, the maid of the house. She is the one who introduces the portraitist to the then absent Héloïse and tells her her story. Sophie also mentions that she is supposed to wear Héloïse’s dress to sit in for her because she won’t pose for painters. The mother has instructed Marianne that she has told Héloïse Marianne was ordered there to accompany her for walks and not to paint her, and that she will have to be subtle about the whole painting thing to not scare her off again. I just want to ask who hires a walker for their daughter?! MOM, I WANT ONE. I love that this film basically only has women in it. There are maybe three male characters in the whole film on screen and like there is maybe two short lines in the beginning and the end of the film said by men.
I have to mention: Héoïse is extra af. Like look at this photo of her waiting to go out with her walker.
She also walks like gays do - BRISKLY.
I know this is a film about looking at faces and inspecting features and I know Marianne is supposed to paint Héloïse but these “subtle” stolen looks and drawings laying on the floor are not giving off a “strictly professional” vibe. They have literally seen and known each other for [about] what feels like 5 minutes at this point.
I also want to add another photo because LOOK AT THIS!!! I wish someone looked at me like Héloïse looks at Marianne while she plays the harpsichord.
Marianne, as we know, has told Héloïse a different reason for coming to the house but by now they have grown so fond of each other that Marianne feels the need to reveal her true intentions. And this is how Héloïse reacts:
Forever the drama queen.
Héloïse has been hesitant to pose for anyone her mother has brought to paint her portrait, even refused to, because she does not want to be married (for some reason when you get married you have to have your portrait painted). Her sister’s suicide made her return home and make her mother betrothed her to the Italian nobleman. Surprisingly, Héloïse agrees to pose for Marianne, which her mother is rightfully shocked to hear. Of course we know why she is so willing when it comes to her new-found “friend” (wink emoji). Look at this interaction after Marianne tells Héloïse to look at her.
Marianne has painted not one but TWO portraits of Héloïse. She burned the first one because she didn’t like it and Héloïse ruined the second one because she thought there was no life in the painting. I am not sure if Marianne burned the portrait she painted of Héloïse because she wanted to stay longer and spend time with her, or if she just wasn’t content with it. I think Héloïse points out it’s the former, Marianne wanting more time to romance a lady, because they were sharing a bed IN NO TIME.
But I am getting ahead of myself. The women’s relationship progresses through simple and small interactions, such as looks and touches. But this is not all about Marianne and Héloïse. Let’s not forget Sophie, who makes friends with both of our leads. After the mother leaves, the three hang out and do fun stuff together.
But what is very weird, but very French, is how we get there: a scene where Marianne is laying puss out
and then reaches in her crotch to realise she has gotten her periods. She then goes for Sophie for pain relief who then reveals she is pregnant and wants to get rid of the baby. They start doing all kinds of weird things to get the baby aborted.
At one point they venture to a gathering in the wild where women meet around a bonfire and start singing ominously (is that what French women do when set loose on an island?????????). They came to ask if someone can perform an abortion. This gathering will become the signature moment of the film: Héloïse’s dress catches fire from the bonfire, it’s the scenery that inspired the painting which shares the film’s title. There are so many layers in the title: Marianne burns Héloïse’s portrait, and at one point Héloïse actually catches fire. Like, seriously, THIS GIRL IS ON FYAAAAAAH!
Honestly though, this whole sequence is amazing, the song that starts as a low hum just grows louder and louder until there is an awesome melody and a cappella singing going on. This is basically the only music in the film that is NOT Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. The 3rd movement, “Presto” from “Summer”, has become the gayest piece of music since “Heaven is a Place on Earth” in Black Mirror: San Junipero (2016).
For some reason, after this scene we truly get down to the business. THE THING WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR TO HAPPEN. 1:19:40 INTO THE FILM THEY FINALLY KISS.
There is 40 minutes left of the film. It is going to be the most beautiful 40 minutes of 2019. I am having heart palpitations right now.
I know abortion is a serious topic but I have to mention the way it is so oddly framed - with a baby lying next to Sophie.
I do not understand why they feel the need to recreate the abortion scene to be drawn. “I’ll just fondle her private parts so you can draw it.” It’s weird, it’s female liberation, it’s French.
But yeah, the film continues with a boob, some weird ass armpit hair caressing, and… armpit fingering? (I guess they could only go so far to keep it PG-13 ??)
Later on, there is also nude modelling. Héloïse asks for a nude picture of Marianne and with creative ways Marianne draws one to the page 28 of “Orpheus and Eurydice” (remember that number!).
And then Héloïse’s mother comes to cockblock them. Everything goes back to before the mother left, back to normal, except Héloïse now having her wedding portrait finally painted. This time, a happy portrait. A portrait filled with life. Still, after everything, Héloïse decides to marry her nobleman and Marianne decides to not stop her. Their ways part. But not without a last look back. Marianne turns around so their eyes can meet one last time before she walks out of the door.
At the end of the film, set years after the parting of their ways, Marianne goes to an art exhibition and sees a new portrait of Héloïse, now with her child. This may seem as if she has found peace in the life that was predestined for her. She does seem confident having her picture taken these days. But this is only the surface. There is a subtle secret hidden beneath the obvious, only meant to be understood by the one person in the know. In the painting she holds a book, the same book Marianne gave her all these years ago on the island, and it has the page 28 on the show.
I have crowned this moment the gayest and most emotional thing I ever got to see on film, because she still remembers, she still thinks about Marianne. She had this portrait taken for no one else but her eternal love. Earlier in the film there’s a scene where Marianne asks if Héloïse has ever heard an orchestra and she answers no.
THE ART OF IT ALL, I truly have no other words.
The last scene shows that Héloïse finally went to a concert, the orchestra performs the “Four Seasons” and she lets out a silent tear, hidden in the shielding darkness of the theatre. Maybe because of the music’s beauty that unfolds in front of her eyes and ears, or maybe because she remembers Marianne playing the same piece for her and them daydreaming about the freedom of going to concerts — most likely both.
Same, Héloïse, same! This is also how I react to Vivaldi.
This loooong close-up (pure genius) shows just her face, through which the viewer can see how she is going through an array of emotions. But not only the viewer gets to see this; it is also Marianne, who watches her lost - but not lost - love from across the room. Héloïse does not catch her look, their eyes do not meet. But they both know. They both are still with no one but each other. Forever.
This scene! The ending is so bittersweet because they left each other years ago amicably, they left knowing how their lives will move on, that this will be the way: Marianne, alone, continuing her art and Héloïse, married to a man she doesn’t truly love and possible children, living the life of a good wife.
The foreshadowing for this happened when the three women were reading “Orpheus and Eurydice”. Orpheus had lost his lover Eurydice to death and went down into the underworld to bring her back. He was granted to get her back under the condition of not being allowed to turn around to look for her while returning to the plane of the living. Orpheus, missing his lover and fearing she would not follow, turned around and she ascended back into the realm of the dead, now lost forever. Marianne said that Orpheus turns around to see his love, knowing he will lose her, because he chooses the memory of her, “he doesn’t make the lover’s choice, but the poet’s”, hinting that in the end these two women will also choose the memory of each other. This is revisited when they bid farewell.
This is the moment they both know the severity of their decisions. This is what they keep in their hearts. They still share a bond, beyond all odds, beyond the alleged death of their relationship. This is when they know the end.
This is what makes this film stand out. Yes, it is another lost love between two women, divided by fate. But are they? Most comparable films end bitter, there is no satisfaction, nothing but tragedy. Portrait of a Lady on Fire also has a tragic ending, there is no way of denying, just like the old Greek legend has. It is still an ending that does not leave you dissatisfied. The viewer - just like the characters - know this is how it had to be. But it is a mutual decision. A decision coming from no other place than love. True love, deep love, eternal, death-defying love. This is not like any other film with a message of “well, gays just don’t deserve a happy ending”. In a way, they got their happy ending, despite the tragedy of not living together. Because in a way, they still live together. They chose no one else but each other. They will carry each other in their hearts, forever.
They only knew each other for 11 days but for once I did not feel like things were ridiculously rushed.
There is a lot I have left out of this review because there is so much going on in the film, so many things to talk about yet so little words to describe the magnificent content. This film undoubtedly is a cinematic masterpiece for its dialogue, reverse shot usage and cinematography and that’s that on that!
Can we also just applaud Adèle Haenel for being amazing? She keeps on starring in lesbian films, like this one and Water Lilies (2007). But most importantly, her real world activism is remarkable. I have never seen anyone else stand against Roman Polanski with such vigour. She had the courage to call the man a paedophile in front of everyone. She walked out in the middle of an award show that was honouring him as “best director”. INCROYABLE ADÈLE, TOUT SIMPLEMENT INCROYABLE!
Conclusively, I’ll leave you with this beautiful shot.
Comments